This poll is rigged. I don’t believe it. Only the most ardent leftists would even know who Noam Chomsky (Khmer Rouge apologist) is, let alone making him #20 on this phony list. The RD has become another left-wing rag.
Also, this poll glorifies Hollywood, the Vatican of the left.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1992/citation-0415.html
...”What it means is that he is very widely read across disciplines and that his work is used by researchers across disciplines,” said Theresa A. Tobin, the Humanities Librarian who checked the numbers.
“In fact,” she added, “it seems that you can’t write a paper without citing Noam Chomsky.”