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If Rush Is a Journalist, Is Woodward a Journalist?"
PHILADELPHIA -- About as many Americans consider Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk show star, to be a journalist as say the same of Bob Woodward, the Washington Post's assistant managing editor who broke the Watergate story with Carl Bernstein, according to a national survey conducted for the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center. Twenty-seven percent of adult Americans, polled between March 7 and May 2, said Limbaugh was a journalist, 55% said he was not, and 18% said they did not know. For Woodward, 30% said he was a journalist, 17% said he was not and 53% did not know. The difference was within the poll's margin of sampling error. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, said Woodward's numbers would have been higher if the survey of 1,500 adults had been taken after the publicity regarding the identification of Mark Felt as "Deep Throat," a key source for Woodward and Bernstein. "Even so,'' she 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 conclusion buttressed by the fact that 40% said Bill O'Reilly, host of Fox News Channel's 'The O'Reilly Factor,' was a journalist and only 19% said that George Will, the columnist and commentator, was one." The Annenberg study also examined the views of 673 journalists, including reporters, editors, producers, news executives and owners, and while they were asked a different question, it was clear that they did not consider Limbaugh and O'Reilly colleagues in their trade. Only 3% said Limbaugh was even "somewhat close" to what they considered a journalist, and 11% said O'Reilly was. Ninety-three percent said Woodward was somewhat close or "very close" to what a journalist was and 61% put Will in one of those two categories. The survey also asked about six other news media figures. Seventy-nine percent of the public said Peter Jennings, the ABC News anchor, was a journalist, 64% said Mike Wallace of CBS' "60 Minutes," was one, and 48% said Katie Couric, co-host of NBC's "Today Show" was one. Forty-two percent said Brian Williams, the new anchor of the "NBC Nightly News" was a journalist, 37% said Larry King, the CNN interviewer, was one, and 33% said Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball," was one. The survey of journalists also found that almost two-thirds of them, or 65%, said that large corporate ownership of most news organizations has a negative impact on the quality of the news that the American public receives. Only 11% said that large company ownership had a positive impact. When asked specifically about the consequences of larger newspaper chains buying smaller local newspapers, only 10% of journalists saw this as having a positive impact on the quality of news. A solid majority, 68%, of journalists said acquisitions of local newspapers by large chains have a negative impact, including 35% who said these buyouts have a very negative impact. When asked about the motives of owners of news organizations, only 12% of journalists said that the top priority of corporate media owners is to provide the public with factual, timely news coverage. Forty-nine percent of journalists said that corporate media owners do try to provide the public with factual, timely news coverage but business realities sometimes prevent this from happening. Thirty-six percent said that corporate media owners are usually more concerned with making a profit than with providing the public with factual, timely news coverage. The public appeared divided about the goals of corporate news media companies. Forty-eight percent of the public said that the first priority is to generate high profits for the owners while 46% of the public said the first priority for news media companies in America today is to deliver high quality news coverage. Among those who said that the top priority for news media companies is to make a profit, 81% said that this hurts the quality of news coverage a great deal or a fair amount. Twenty-three percent of journalists said profit considerations influenced journalistic decisions at large media companies to a "great extent, 45% said to "a moderate extent" and 26% said "to a small extent." When those groups together were asked how journalistic decisions were affected, 84% said cutbacks in staffing, 64% said reductions in the types of stories covered and 53% a decline in the number of stories covered. Visit the Annenberg Public Policy Center at www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org"