Delivering the News: America Picks Its Favorites

Who are your favorite and least favorite news personalities? The people who conduct the popular Harris Poll asked more than 2,000 adults and the responses varied.

Bulldog Reporter’s Daily Dog gives the results below. Who would be on your lists?

Decades ago there were just a few names that dominated the news world. Everyone knew who Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley and Chet Huntley were. And, the odds were good it was one of those men who gave people their evening dose of national and world news. Today, of course, that is not the case; there are still the big three anchors, but there is also the multitude of news personalities on all the various cable stations, and even a radio personality who transcends many of his colleagues on television.

Looking at a list of 26 current affairs personalities, when asked which three are their favorites, almost one quarter say ABC News’ Diane Sawyer (23%), while one in five each say CNN’s Anderson Cooper (19%) and NBC’s Brian Williams (19%). Rounding out the top five favorite current affairs personalities are Bill O’Reilly (15%) and Barbara Walters (15%).

Looking at the flip side — which three of the 26 news personalities are America’s least favorite — almost half say Rush Limbaugh (46%). Three in ten say Bill O’Reilly (31%) and almost one-quarter say their least favorite is Nancy Grace (23%). Rounding out the top 10 least favorite news personalities are Sean Hannity (14%), Katie Couric (10%), Piers Morgan (10%), Barbara Walters (10%), Chris Matthews (10%), Rachel Maddow (7%) and Wolf Blitzer (7%).