OK, then in venues larger than the small town journalists didn't pay much
attention to their education until their bosses got scared--equal time on
matters of fact didn't become a dominant practice until then, and there was
a lively tradition of muckraking that went back to the 1860s. It doesn't,
at any rate, seem to have been the case at Columbia School of Journalism,
the school I knew best, which churned out small armies of graduates
committed to reporting the facts as they found them, regardless of
political impact. Fred Friendly, the then dean (he had been Murrow's
producer) regularly and publicly sounded off on the topic.
The idea does fit neatly into the American agrarian myth, tho.
Mark
At 12:02 PM 1/4/2006 +1100, you wrote:
>On 4/1/06 11:45 AM, "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > As to the derivation of the practice, his memory must be shorter
> > than mine. It actually derives from the pressure placed on the media in the
> > wake of the vietnam war by the right wing
>
>No, he traces it earlier than that to American journalism education, which
>he said was principally about ethics for local news reporters. A practice
>that of course got a bit of spin later on...
>
>Best
>
>A
>
>
>Alison Croggon
>
>Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
>Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
>Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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