Hey, at least we beat out lawyers: the public doesn't think journalists contribute as much to society as, say, clergy or even artists, according to a new Pew poll.
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The poll released Thursday by the Pew Research Center asked about 4,000 people how much they thought certain professions contributed to "society's well-being." Members of the military topped the list, as they did the last time the poll was taken in 2009, with 78 percent of respondents saying they believed the military contributed "a lot" (in 2009, it was 84 percent).
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Journalists are toward the bottom — only 28 percent of people thought they contributed a lot to society, down from 38 percent in 2009. Only business executives (24 percent) and lawyers (18 percent) were lower.
Nearly the same percentage of respondents thought journalists contributed "not very much" or nothing to society at all — 27 percent. The poll was conducted in between March 21 and April 8.