Poll: Is WikiLeaks Good, Destructive or Treason?

Although in some circles it is viewed as a champion of freedom of the press and an adversary of institutional secrecy, few Americans seem to agree that WikiLeaks is a good thing.

Just 9 percent think so, while 45 percent view WikiLeaks negatively - though those people are divided as to whether or not the site is treasonous (22 percent) or simply destructive, but still legal (23 percent).

But despite being prominently in the news for weeks for leaking classified documents from The State Department, and worse, for an organization that depends on notoriety to ply its trade, 42 percent of Americans aren't sure what WikiLeaks is.

Republicans are more aware of WikiLeaks than are Democrats or independents, and their opinion is largely negative.

Republicans (36 percent) are more than twice as likely to think WikiLeaks is treasonous than either Democrats (15 percent) or independents (16 percent).

Check out the rest of the "60 Minutes"/Vanity Fair Poll.

This poll was conducted at the CBS News interviewing facility among a random sample of 1,058 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone December 17-20, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.