WASHINGTON (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.
Only 30 percent said Woodward, who broke the Watergate story with Carl Bernstein, was a journalist. 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 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.
...
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, said the results of the poll suggest the public defines the word "journalist" far differently than those in the press define it.
This poll tells us nothing about who people believe is a journalist. It just tells us who has name recognition. This question reads like a test and people are going to try to give the "right" answer. What a stupid stupid poll.
This last part is kinda funny:
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.
7 percent of journalists don't think Booby Woodward is a journalist?