Who is a journalist OR Americans ARE getting stupider...

[SteveMacD]

Poll asks Americans "Who is a journalist?"
CBC Arts


A new U.S. poll reveals that 40 per cent of Americans think Fox News Channel personality Bill O'Reilly is a journalist, compared to 30 per cent who think Bob Woodward is a journalist.

Woodward is the reporter who – along with partner Carl Bernstein – helped break the Watergate story, which forced Richard Nixon from the White House. Now a senior editor with the Washington Post, Woodward is the author of numerous books.

O'Reilly is the television host who has been attacked by some for his unabashedly right-wing views.

Using a list of 10 names, the poll asked respondents to say if they think the person in question is a journalist.

ABC News anchor Peter Jennings rated highest, with 79 per cent saying they think of him as a journalist.

Woodward was on par with Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk-radio host who was rated by 27 per cent of people to be a journalist.

The other names on the list were 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace (at 64 per cent), morning-show host Katie Couric (48 per cent), NBC anchor Brian Williams (42 per cent), CNN interviewer Larry King (37 per cent), Hardball host Chris Matthews (33 per cent) and conservative commentator George Will (19 per cent).

Limbaugh told the Associated Press he is "not really surprised" with the findings.

"I am America's anchorman, doing news play-by-play 15 hours a week for nearly 17 years now, and this is just more evidence that the old media's monopoly-like dominance is finished," he said.

The study was conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center from March 7 to May 2.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the centre's director, said Woodward would have ranked higher if the poll had been conducted after W. Mark Felt was unmasked as Deep Throat on May 31.

The flurry of stories that followed noted Woodward's role in helping to unseat Nixon.

Jamieson said the results provide "disturbing evidence that the public defines the word very differently from the way that most journalists do."

Journalists were also quizzed with a set of similar questions. Using the same list of names, they were asked to rate how closely the person comes to matching their "idea of what a journalist is."

Woodward rated highest on that question, with 72 per cent of journalists saying he comes "very close" to personifying the journalistic ideal.

O'Reilly and Limbaugh tied for last, with 1 per cent of journalists saying they came "very close" to being journalists.

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God, now I'm effing depressed. I think I'm going to puke AND cry.