Does anyone actually read charts?

In preparation for a workshop I was hunting for examples of charts from all sorts of media. And it astounded me how quickly I found examples to illustrate all the pitfalls I wanted to cover.

Seriously, I sometimes wonder how many people actually find charts useful? I tend to think most people don’t*. But some in-depth user research would be useful.

*which is a good thing because it doesn’t look like the designers, journalists, subs and editors do either