Breaking News: Americans Are Clueless

In case you needed further evidence that Americans are not to be trusted with the reins of democracy, a new Annenberg Public Policy Center poll has found that more Americans think Bill O’Reilly is a journalist than Bob Woodward.

On the plus side, if there is a plus side, it’s not that people don’t think that Woodward’s a journalist–it’s just that 53 percent of Americans don’t know who he is. [Important caveat: The poll was taken BEFORE the revelation of Deep Throat and subsequent orgy of coverage.]

Two in five of those polled think Bill O’Reilly is a journalist, more than a quarter said Rush Limbaugh was, while one in five said George Will was a journalist. Katie Couric narrowly edged Brian Williams (48-42), but fully forty percent of Americans don’t know the dean of the network news at all. NBC must be so proud.

Peter Jennings, though, he’s definitely a journalist–79% of Americans say so. Now we wonder how that would change if people knew he was Canadian….

Annenberg’s Kathleen Hall Jamieson said “The fact that a quarter of the public thinks Limbaugh is a journalist is disturbing evidence that the public defines the word very differently from the way that most journalists do.”

A related survey of journalists, who were asked about the same list of ten reporters, found that while fully 72 percent of journalists found that Bob Woodward comes “very close” to their idea of a journalist, only one percent thought O’Reilly qualified.

Full general public results and numbers after the jump. Read the PDF press release for details of the journalists’ poll.

Our Big Question: What must it be like to live the life of one of the 23 percent of Americans who don’t know about Katie Couric or the 62 percent (that’s way more than half!) who are clueless about George Will? Are their lives happy and full?
In case you needed further evidence that Americans are not to be trusted with the reins of democracy, a new Annenberg Public Policy Center poll has found that more Americans think Bill O’Reilly is a journalist than Bob Woodward.

On the plus side, if there is a plus side, it’s not that people don’t think that Woodward’s a journalist–it’s just that 53 percent of Americans don’t know who he is. [Important caveat: The poll was taken BEFORE the revelation of Deep Throat and subsequent orgy of coverage.]

Two in five of those polled think Bill O’Reilly is a journalist, more than a quarter said Rush Limbaugh was, while one in five said George Will was a journalist. Katie Couric narrowly edged Brian Williams (48-42), but fully forty percent of Americans don’t know the dean of the network news at all. NBC must be so proud.

Peter Jennings, though, he’s definitely a journalist–79% of Americans say so. Now we wonder how that would change if people knew he was Canadian….

Annenberg’s Kathleen Hall Jamieson said “The fact that a quarter of the public thinks Limbaugh is a journalist is disturbing evidence that the public defines the word very differently from the way that most journalists do.”

A related survey of journalists, who were asked about the same list of ten reporters, found that while fully 72 percent of journalists found that Bob Woodward comes “very close” to their idea of a journalist, only one percent thought O’Reilly qualified.

Full general public results and numbers after the jump. Read the PDF press release for details of the journalists’ poll.

Our Big Question: What must it be like to live the life of one of the 23 percent of Americans who don’t know about Katie Couric or the 62 percent (that’s way more than half!) who are clueless about George Will? Are their lives happy and full?

Journalist’s Name: Yes / No / Don’t Know
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Journalist’s Name: Yes / No / Don’t Know
———————-
Peter Jennings: 79% / 11% / 10%

Mike Wallace: 64% / 16% / 20%

Katie Couric: 48% / 29% / 23%

Brian Williams: 42% / 19% / 38%

Bill O’Reilly: 40% / 33% / 27%

Larry King: 37% / 48% / 15%

Chris Matthews: 33% / 27% / 40%

Bob Woodward: 30% / 17% / 53%

Rush Limbaugh: 27% / 55% / 18%

George Will: 19% / 19% / 62%

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