College education of the top political pundits

I cant believe Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge, Hannity, and Glenn Beck never finished college. These people debate history and have barely read or studied anything formerly...

Who knew "Bush's Brain" actually didnt graduate...lulz

But is a college degree really the only marker of intelligence and knowledge?

Not surprised at all. How many people could be wrong that often and keep their jobs? They get away with it because their core listeners are similarly ignorant.

Psychologists call it "The Halo Effect."

We tend to attribute and infer characteristics to people based on social cues.

If we see someone wearing scrubs and a lab coat in a hospital we will assume their doctors -- even though they may first year interns or not even work their at all!

We see someone on TV, like Hannity, and we assume "Oh! He's on TV! He must be a really intelligent person with a college degree!"

This happens a lot. We assume if someone is on TV or has a radio show that they must know what they're talking about....otherwise they wouldn't be on TV or on the radio, right?

This extends to politicans too!

We assume that if someone is elected to public office (like McCain) then they are probably really, really smart. Most likely lawyers, right? And yet McCain himself has repeatedly admitted he doesn't understand much about economics and confessed he doesn't know how to operate a computer!

And what about CEO's that earn a high salary?

I know many Conservatives that fall into this trap: if someone earns 20 million a year then they MUST be really smart and really talented!

And yet....there have been numerous books released over the years clearly illustrating there is almost no connection between the salary of Fortune 500 CEO's and their actual ability to produce results.

In fact, Arianna Huffington wrote a book called "Pigs At The Trough" which outlined how many of the highest paid CEO's actually mismanged their companies right into bankrupcty....and still managed to walk away with multi-million dollar golden parachute deals!

College focus on academic knowledge, SAt etc

Many creative people like Bill Gates quit college

IQ is not enough,

What about ?

EQ Emotional quotient

RQ Relationship Quotient

SQ Spiritual Quotient

to Soleil10,
Way off...
Journalism requires education or you just end up a populist, who panders to his audience.

Bill Gates didnt hire a college drop out to run Microsofts business end. Ballmer finished college....

colbert you are awesome

college is easy i did it. All the people they talk to are stupid so no reason to feel sorry for them or their listeners. Its not their fault their stupid that is what stupid people relate to.

That is why there are more stupid people then smart people. if there were more stupid people i wouldnt be wasting my summer prepping to take the MCAT for med school.

Stewart & Colbert finished!

Well well well, I always though that neo-conservatism smacked of Andrew Jackson and now I'm pretty sure. Although I have always thought that most college is overrated, I never knew how far up the political ladder you could go in america today.

I'll just add this. Having a university degree doesn't make you brilliant. I have two and there are loads of people who think I'm a complete idiot.

The issue isn't the "book learnin'" you have, it's what you do with the information you get. I don't think Hannity or Limbaugh would be any more or less biased in their opinions with an education.

The trouble is NOT that they didn't get education. It's that the general population isn't educated enough to see through the lies.

lets be honest with ourselves, putting a college degree up on a pedestal like its something special to achieve is a throwback to our parents days in the 60s and 70s when hardly anyone even went to college. Nowadays pretty much everyone does in some form or another, and if they cant or choose not to they are stigmatized for it, unless they make millions of dollars annually.

MLK Jr, Studied to be a preacher, that counts as higher education, also what does a middle class income actually mean when our currency and economic future are circling the toilet bowl? appreciate if people hit up my post today with some feedback;

http://current.com/items/89016758_what_is_wrong_with_ou...

what do you call a person that gradutates at the bottom of their class? A Doctor.

A degree from a college is not correlated to intelligence. I'm sorry to inform you all of that.

I am a Democrat.

This is a cheap shot.

to nypinstripes,
The USA has become an economy based on professionals and creativity, which demand at least a degree.

I would enjoy listening to political pundit who at least studied HISTORY, which surround the US political scene.

Brian Williams doesnt have a college but all of his telecast is scripted. Pundits debate on live television with the knowledge they have stored in their heads.

College, at the very least, forces them to learn events, people, and systems.

these people are making big bucks and didnt finish college. who are you calling stupid? and maby the general population hasent been brain washed by a liberal college professer .

They aren't stupid but they aren't great journalists either. Limbaugh urged people to cross party lines and vote for Clinton.

Radio personality make politics into a soap opera to get truckers and anybody else who has time to listen to the radio during the day to tune in.

The country is in trouble. The luxury of shock/fluff stories has cost American citizens trillions of dollars in the middle east...

I don't like University snobs. I'm not up for demoting people based on if they finished the arm and a leg costing four year University.

I know smart people that never stepped foot in a University. I know some stupid people who have.

There is no OMG it's so much better that you spend more money than you'll ever make in your entire life to read books that cost more than they actually cost to make.

But I like bias lists. They are fun to read as they make fun of others for making fun of others.

I didn't finish college. But I do have a 3.9 GPA. College is simply jumping through hoops and memorizing facts for a short period of time to pass an exam. I don't believe it proves much, except that you were fortunate enough to have enough money and time to go.

Ok usually I don't make this comment but this "news" is just plain stupid.

I mean 24 of the 30 listed here actually did graduate college, why report on something so full of errors? There are literally hundreds of better stories on current right now, how this made it to tv before others is beyond me.

Probably just the picture of Colbert here.

It is not getting the education that is the problem, it is using the education that you have. College doesn't mean anything because I know a lot of dumb people who talk nonsense and don't use facts at all but some how went to college. So what does college have to do with learning facts, did Lincoln go to college? It is about using your resources! I don't think going to college will make you smarter than the next guy plus if you can't afford a college degree, you sure can afford a library card. The new slogan now: college is power, not knowledge is power.

Looks like all that education didn't help Bill one bit. If he were to follow Rove's path maybe he wouldn't be the most hated hack on TV...and could support the bulls##t coming out of the White House directly.

It's quite funny how many comments on this page are poorly spelled, punctuated, and written. Read through all the comments and spot the worst offenders. I'm not usually one to nitpick "speeling and gramer [I know]," but I find it ironic that some of you are lambasting people for not finishing college when you can't even use apostrophes correctly.

This is not a "puff" piece!

This is a very, very serious issue. This goes to the heart of the Assualt On Reason that Al Gore warned us about.

Imagine the following scenario: There is a Press Conference at the White House and the President is asked a question about Iraq security. He refers the question to someone wearing a Generals uniform. This man proceeds to give a lengthy answer about troop rotations and how invading Iran is critical to bringing stability to Iraq.

Weeks later it's revealed that this man is not a General, has never served int he military and has never even graduated high school!

Now this man (during the Press Conference) never claimed to be in the military -- but the American public can be forgiven for assuming that, yeah, this dumb ass high school drop out really WAS an intelligent military General with a strong grasp of military tactics and we would be forgiven for giving CREDIT and legitimacy to this idiots words that we otherwise would not have given.

This is exactly what's happening in journalism today and politics today. We're assuming idiots know what they're talking about because their on TV or they managed to win an election.

There is a newscaster on TV or the radio -- yet it turns out they have no journalism degree nor do they actually understand history or economics or science. That's a problem!

There are politicans in Congress passing laws regulating the Internet -- yet they have no idea how to even turn on a computer! That is a MAJOR problem!

Some may dismiss this as a "non news" story but I think this is at the very heart of the Assualt on Reason that Al Gore warned us about.

We're assuming that people in positions of authority (talking heads, politicans, CEO's) actually know what the fuck they're talking and we're bowing down to their ideas when in reality THEY'RE IDIOTS!

The politicans think the internet is a "series of pneumatic tubes."

The CEO's think issuing half million dollar mortgages to unemployed people for YEARS makes excellent business sense (and we give them a bonus for doing so).

The journalists think Syria is the capital of Iran!

This is a serious problem with far, far reaching consequences for America as a country!

education holds much more importance for the younger generation than the older. don't even try getting a job with CNN not having graduated college.

It's true that a higher education does not guarantee higher intelligence, however, from what i've seen, most people i've known who didn't finish college tend to be less open minded and stubborn, (which could be why they didn't finish college; too impatient) and by reading the list of pundits who didn't finish college, it holds true there as well.

Sylvie that is so elitist.

You are saying that people for one reason or another couldn't finish college are below you and your highly edumacated friends.

Alot of people who dont finish college dont because of their intelligence.

College is a joke, any monkey with a laptop can do it today.

Most of the people on the list didnt graduate, because of lack of funds.

This is a terrible post.

Clayjj05:
I'm sorry if i seem elitist, ( i notice that's the "it" word lately.) Anyway, I'm just making an observation, of course it's not true for everyone. There are intelligent people everywhere regardless of education. It's just an observation and makes a little bit of sense if you apply it to the pundits on the list.

How come they never went back to college AFTER they became rich and money wsn't an issue?

Is it because they aren't intellectually curious and just aren't interested in learning new things and exploring new points of view?

I dont know if you forgot about how college works, but it takes time. These people work more hours than most of us. Im guessing thats why most of them didnt go back.

It is very interesting to see that Karl Rove didn't even finish college and now he is "Bush's Brain"...great. Well at least these politicians finished high school...

http://schoolfinder.globalscholar.com/blog/259/high-sch...

Finished highschool? I think with the way Bush is geographically inept and bad at speeches I think they should improve high school system there.

Clayjj05,

I concur...

My father went to school with Bill Moyers.
Mom had to quit school...they didn't allow engaged or married women in 1955 or 1956.

Later, when I attended Xavier U. in Cinci, she re-applied
and finished as a business major.

The inmates are running the asylum and most of them are getting pretty rich.