A few posts ago I whined and fussed about those people I call journalebrities, people who are not trained to be journalists but are famous for playing one on television. Nancy Grace and her ilk at her former gig on CourtTV (I was truly disappointed in CNN after they signed on Grace following her embarassing pouty and angry spewings about the Scott Peterson trial). Fox's Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh also come to mind.
I just read that novelist Stephen King recently complained about the same thing.
Anyway, an Annenberg poll of 1,500 Americans this spring found that more Americans think O'Reilly (40%) is a journalist than think the Washington Post's Bob Woodward is (30%). Fifty-three percent didn't even know who Woodward was. Limbaugh was called a journalist by 27%.
At first I was upset -- though not surprised -- with those figures. Then I realized that if Americans are trusting the media less and less, and if they think numbskulls like O'Reilly and Limbaugh are true journalists, maybe we shouldn't worry. Maybe more Americans are recognizing pseudo-journalism when they see it. And they don't like it.
One can only hope. For more info:
Annenberg Survey
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