In case you missed it, I started an earlier thread about controversy brewing at Northwestern's journalism school and its dean using unattributed comments in his letter in the alumni magazine.
Yesterday, some Medill faculty fired a shot across the bow.
I have a lot of thoughts here but want yours. Specifically, I'd like to know what you think about the idea that PR writing is held to a lower sourcing standard than journalism.
And what about anonymous sources, are they OK to use? When?
And let's get right to the heart here. Is the problem that people think the dean should have named his sources or is it that they suspect he didn't really have those sources? If it's the latter, do they have a responsibility to come out and say it?
Finally, does it matter? I was having a little IM spat with a journalist friend yesterday, warning him that it's all too easy to blow these insider controversies out of proportion when they may not matter much to the wider public. I used you guys as Exhibit A: you posted only two comments to the thread on Medill but put up 30 about NIU. You have a clear sense of what is important to you. Do news media share those priorities?
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Ethics and Medill, an update
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4 comments:
Medill students have started a blog to start a constructive conversation on this topic. Visit us at www.journalistsspeak.blogspot.com to read all the latest news coverage of what the Chicago Tribune deemed 'Quotegate'. The blog includes links to the faculty statement, as well as a statement drafted by four Medill undergraduates which has 140 signatures and counting from other students and alumni of Medill.
We welcome your additions to the conversation, and view this as a teachable moment in our journalism education. Thank you.
Tricia Bobeda
Medill School of Journalism, Class of 2009
interesting comment from a medill student (or at least someone who purports to be one ... in an anonymous online world, who knows?)
in any case, here is the link linked
so what say ye, 202ers?
'Quotegate'? Does anyone else think that's a cheap way to gain more publicity for this event? Personally, I thought 'Spygate' was enough and now there's 'Quotegate'? Come on, let's get a little more creative.
If a student would have made this same "mistake" how would that have been treated? Would they have been expelled? Also, who was the editor of this magazine? Do they not read all content before it is published? Why was this not caught before it made the press?
I find it difficult to believe that this was not caught before-hand...
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