Journalist?

From AP:
"About 40 percent of Americans say they consider talk show host Bill O'Reilly a journalist - more than would define famed Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward the same way, according to a poll conducted this spring.

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Okay big surprise right? So 40% of the idiots in America actually believe Bill O'Reilly, but there's more

"Only 30 percent of those polled said Woodward was a journalist, while 53 percent said they didn't know, despite the fact that Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate story that ultimately led to President Nixon's resignation in 1974.

More than a quarter said talk show host Rush Limbaugh was one, while one in five said they considered newspaper columnist George Will to be a journalist.

Poll respondents were asked about 10 writers, TV news anchors and broadcast personalities. They were simply asked, "Please tell me if you think (the individual named) is a journalist or not?" The question made no specific reference to differences between reporters and commentators.
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Okay so we start to get a better picture of how this poll was a bit tricky for the average moron, but the fact that 25% think Rush is a jounrnalist should make you feel superior given that I doubt anyone reading this site would be that stupid. But wait there's more...

"Annenberg also polled journalists from all sectors of the industry. Only 3 percent of journalists said Limbaugh was "somewhat close" to being a journalist and 11 percent said that about O'Reilly, while 93 percent said Woodward was "somewhat close or very close" to being a journalist."
Now this is the outrage. "journalists", and I use that term loosely, were also polled and between 3 and 11 percent are yanking the chain of the media whores. Okay, that sounds like plot work to me. I can't imagine anyone respectfully calling themselves a journalist not knowing that Bill and Rush are a couple of second rate actors that didn't get the lead in South Pacific so they lucked out on teevee. What's sad is that the article stressed the terms "somewhat close or or very close" only when mentioning this last point. Why it's sad is probably because either 93% or journalists don't appreciate the breakthrough that Woodward and Bernstein made for American journalism or they don't want to admit that what they're doing now is crap compared to the real search for truth that once was considered hallmark to journalism.