Submitted by United States Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana
WASHINGTON (June 18, 2024) – Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) spoke on the Senate floor about how informed Louisianians are and how they get their news.
Key remarks from Kennedy include:
“Every time I leave Washington, D.C., and go back home to America, I am reminded of how parochial Washington, D.C., can be—how removed it can be, how unaware it can be.
“We often hear people in this city, where our Capitol sits, say, ‘Well . . . the American people just don’t understand.’ ‘The American people’—you often hear—‘just don’t know what they’re talking about. They don’t know what we know. They don’t read the news. They don’t keep up like we do.’”
. . .
“So, recently, Mr. President, I conducted a poll [to] test that point of view. . . . About 70% of my people in Louisiana, Mr. President, follow the news every single day.”
. . .
“Thirty-nine percent of the people in Louisiana—70% of whom follow the news every single day—get their news from cable TV.
“Another 21.1% get their news from morning and evening broadcast television—not cable—local television news and national television news.”
. . .
“Twenty-seven percent of my people get their news primarily from the internet.”
. . .
“Radio news is also important in my state. Seven percent of my people . . . listen to radio news as their primary source of news.”
. . .
“Only 4% of my people receive their news today from newspapers.”
. . .
“Sometimes we get it wrong in Washington, Mr. President, in terms of our perceptions of what’s going on in real America.”
