Journalists
There was an excellent letter in The Times recently (written by an ex-journalist) which picked up a point I have been grumbling quietly about for years. It is that too many Journalists like to describe theselves as 'professionals'. Not so. A profession has defined entry requirements, recognised training courses and qualifications, and bodies to monitor standards. Aircrew, for example. Journalism is an occupation. Come to that, so is politics. There are good and bad journalists, politicians, and pilots. The difference is that the bad pilots get exposed very quickly, and either retrained or fired.
That isn't to say that there aren't plenty of journalists in print and TV who do an honest and sound job. However, much of the national reporting is done by generalists who think they understand what the specialist are telling them. Sometimes this is because the specialists haven't explained clearly enough, sometimes it is down to the journalist's conviction that he has the knack of paraphrasing what he has been told - a bad case of 'a little knowledge . . . ' .
There is also the pressure of time, where there is a commercial need to get something out there. Finally, let's face it, most of the public don't really understand or care about some of the finer distinctions that exercise us as a community.
Taking all these points together, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the most respectable figures to come out of this 'survey' are those who fly, who who have flown, for a living; and are writing for a knowledgeable audience.