Reality Check

Americans who watched the Superbowl: 89.8 million
Americans who watched the Oscars: 43.5 million

You might think from watching TV that the two events have equal pop cultural resonance. They don't. Far more people watch the Super Bowl.

Total female audience for the 10 syndicated TV shows most popular with women: 50.44 million

Total male audience for the 10 syndicated TV shows most popular with men: 43.74 million.

The popular image of men is that they are couch potatoes planted in front of the tube while women do other things. Facts do not bear this out. Women watch more television and the gap is growing. (That's what is at the core of the "missing men" debate over television ratings.

Thus far roughly 25 million Americans have seen the Passion. That is less than 11% of the population over 15 years of age.

Of those who have seen the movie, 92% had a "very favorable" or "favorable" opinion of it.

All of this sheds some interesting light on the blogosphere. It seems that a fairly high proportion of bloggers have seen the Passion and posted about it. At the same time, a significant percentage of bloggers gave it an unfavorable review (prejudiced, too violent, poorly made, etc.)

A lot more bloggers posted about the Oscars than the Superbowl. Maybe it was the LotR effect, but in any case, it makes the blogosphere different.

When Jonah Goldberg plays Everyman in the Corner with his couch jokes and Simpson references, he is reflecting a media-created stereotype.