Leading Intellectual

During my reading of chapter 3 in Amusing Ourselves to Death I began to wonder who the leading intellectuals are in today's world. Postman mentions authors such as Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley, Louis Agassiz and Ralph Waldo Emerson and explains how men (and even woman such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin) could be successful if they could write efficiently. He goes to say that when Charles Dickens visited America he received the same welcome that quarterbacks or Michael Jackson would have received in 1985.

But Michael Jackson was not a leading intellectual and most quarterbacks surely do not meet this title either. When Postman mentions Thomas Paine published a very popular book he states that "the only communication event that could produce such collective attention in today's America is the Superbowl,”

These facts make me disappointed in "today's America". Who are our leading intellectuals? In the nineteenth century it was the authors. And surely the twentieth centuries "Albert Einstein" would qualify as a "leading intellectual". In today’s world even fans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series don't scream "Team Stephenie". It's "Edward" or "Jacob". Authors don't receive the same respect as they used to. And so many inventions and discoveries occur each year that it's hard to pinpoint a leading intellectual. Is this good or bad?