An American Intellectual

Bernard Henri-Levy of France has been all over the media recently. He is usually called a "French intellectual" by our 'lamestream' media. For example, consider this paragraph from an article in the venerable NY Times: Mr. Lévy, a celebrated philosopher, journalist and public intellectual, gives Mr. Sarkozy sole credit for persuading London, Washington and others to support intervention in Libya. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/world/africa/02levy.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bernard%20henri-levy&st=cse

How has it come to be that France has all the intellectuals, while US has none? I have never heard any american called an "intellectual." Have you? Why is that? Could it be one of the major problems with US? We desperately need at least one citizen known as an "intellectual."