By arthur Weinreb
Friday, June 24, 2005The annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania released a study on the media early last week. One of the findings of the polls that were conducted showed that some people had difficulty in distinguishing between those who are and are not journalists.
In answer to the question "Please tell me if you think _______ is a journalist", over one quarter of the respondents (27%) thought that talk radio host Rush Limbaugh was a journalist. This was only slightly less than those that thought that investigative reporter, Bob Woodard, of Watergate fame was a journalist.
The accuracy of the poll can certainly be questioned. From the question that was asked, the pollster made no attempt to distinguish those who listen to Limbaugh on a regular basis from those who never listen but have heard of him. as far as Woodward is concerned, the poll was completed on May 2, prior to W. Mark Felt’s coming out as Watergate’s Deep Throat and putting the investigative reporter back into the limelight.
Nevertheless the poll shows that a significant proportion of people cannot make the distinction between fact and opinion. a journalist is a person who gathers and then reports, facts. Limbaugh makes it absolutely clear that he does not gather facts and does not hold himself out to be a journalist or a reporter. He comments upon facts that are already in the public domain. and in many instances, he sources the information that he comments upon (including on occasion, Canada Free Press). Limbaugh is a commentator who, as commentator do, comments events that are taking place. It is hard to imagine that Rush Limbaugh could do anything more to show that he is not reporting the new; that he is giving his opinion on various issues.
Those of us who do opinion pieces and commentary are subject to occasional accusations of bias. as true as these accusations usually are, there is nothing wrong with being biased. It is only those who report the news, ie. the facts who can properly be accused of acting inappropriately by showing a bias.
The annenberg study shows that there are many people who have difficulty distinguishing news from opinion and from realizing when bias is and is not appropriate. This does not bode well for ridding the media of bias in their gathering and reporting of the news.