About that "Journalist"

Follow up and comments

As predicted by Mrs. Wilson (Career Journalist; Journalism degree - Syracuse ), “You’re going to get a lotta blowback on this.”

Wellll….yes – altho I wouldn’t categorize “comments” as “blowback”, but I get the point!

Before getting to specifics, I’ll try to clarify my main points and the motivation for writing the piece.

Journalism is a profession. The definition of “Journalism,” or “Journalist” has devolved over the decades, partially due to the technical means by which Journalism is practiced and partially by the sloppy, lazy people using the term inaccurately and inappropriately. From my perspective and experience, Journalists are trained and degreed. While, most all “commentators”, “reporters”., “pundits”, “political analysts” and such do not have a Journalism or, in many cases, any college degree in a similar discipline, the requirements to get their job are demonstrably lower. They have opinions that may/may not be based on provable fact. A sampling of MSNBC programs and “personalities” is an excellent source for opinions sans fact.

Along with the discipline to earn a Journalism degree, Journalists have the SPJ and RTDNA Code of Ethics. Commentators do not. So when Chuck Todd bloviates about tainting journalists because NBC hired a Republican, is ‘egomaniacal hypocrite’ write large. Many of his NBC/MSNBC colleagues are not degreed Journalists –including him. According to his Wikipedia page: “He declared a major in political science and a minor in music but did not earn a degree. (Emphasis mine).

 Vicki, Vicki’s Newsletter, commented: “"Journalists" at least know things like they are supposed to be fair and impartial and not let anyone know their personal preferences. Just the news, period.”  

Along with the degradation of the definition of Journalism/Journalist, job requirements for News outlets have changed also. A “Broadcast Journalism” degree is not necessarily more/less desirable than one on Political Science, American History, English, Mass Comm and similar. While those subjects may address writing style, grammar, subject matter accuracy, government functions, public relations, there is no Ethics requirement for History majors. And Ethics is at the heart of News reporting. A ten year review of ABC, NBC, CBS network reporting reveals endorsements and credibility given to “Russian collusion”, Hunter Biden lap top as Russian propaganda and a long list of “MAGA Right Wing conspiracy theories” subsequently revealed to be fact. To date, none the networks sited have apologized or made retractions for the lies they broadcast to their audience.

The RTDNA Code of Ethics states: “Acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly. Explain corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly.   Gather, update and correct information throughout the life of a news story.”

Self-proclaimed, self-identifying NBC and MSNBC network “journalists” strenuously violated these and other sections of the Code. OTOH, NBC/MSNBC “commentators” can lie with as much mis- and disinformation all they can get away with.

I’m allergic to liars and hypocrites, especially in my business. I also take principled offense at those who appropriate a title they never earned, unlike my wife and others who worked their ass off to get and strictly adhere to the Code of Ethics of their profession. NBC’s Chuck Todd & Co. do not.

Moving on…

Domenic C. Scarella Good Neighbor, Bad Citizen

“It's an interesting issue to debate. I was a journalist, and I never went to journalism school. Formal journalism schools are quite new, relatively speaking. In college, I never knew why a journalism major -- let alone a whole college/school -- would exist. There isn't an extensive body of knowledge needed for journalism, as there would be in medicine, law, engineering, actual trade schools, etc.”

According to the decomposed definition now given to Journalist/Journalism, we share that resume entry. I rip ‘n read AP news for 7-8 years, covered civil rights marches and MLK assassination riots in Baton Rouge for the station and network, one suicide, fed CNN interviews with various rock starts on John Lennon’s murder. According to the original definition, that hardly makes me a Journalist. At best, I can refer to a portion of my career as a News Reporter. While there may be exceptions, Reporters are not “Journalists” unless we’re using the New Elastic definition.

Indeed, “Formal journalism schools are quite new, relatively speaking”. However, the absence of an “extensive body of knowledge needed…” changed drastically with every technical advance in the tools used to gather and report. While medicine, law, etc., require more extensive study, my point was/is Journalism is a profession. The common, casual definition merely provides poor cover for the average person to claim the title. Anyone with a cell phone and camera is now proclaimed a Citizen Journalist because s/he videoed some altercation and sold it to an outlet. Citizen Activist would be more accurate. Once again: no training. No ethics. No knowledge of the requirements to do the job. “Professional” goes beyond getting a check.

“Those are basically the skills you’re supposed to acquire from *any* major. Everything after that is honest practice and rigorous, logic-based thinking.”

Key word “honest”. You’re making one of my points. Without a degree, those ‘basic skills’ must be acquired – if possible – elsewhere; honest, ethical practice and critical thinking are (or used to be) part of the academic process. Maybe that’s how “commentators” are made.

Timmy Taes, Timmy’s Substack

“I'd hire the person who saw every episode of Perry Mason.”

I get the sarcasm. For the sake of anyone who missed it, you wouldn’t because you can’t. Govt prohibits “practicing law without a license:” The First Amendment doesn’t permit such requirements for purveyors of “news” – altho there was a time I had to have a FCC license just to be on the air.

Technicalities aside, if one could hire a Perry Mason fanatic (like my late mother), one might be better off. Key word “might”. Many of the laws I suspect you’d probably break (!) are grounded in logic, not hair-splitting technicalities the Courts and clever lawyers concoct. Then there are all the stifling “rules” of the court.

EXTRA !

Not part of our original discussion, today this pearl popped up:  “David Brooks on Ronna McDaniel: To Be On "Our Air," You Have to Have Some Commitment to the Truth above Partisanship” (Read it. It’s short. I’ll wait…)

Along with the source (PBS), the title alone challenges control of the gag reflex while simultaneously providing a glaring example of the ‘Bubble for the Politically Blind and Intellectually Stunted’. Here are three liberal pinnacles of commentary, David Brooks (‘Cultural Commentator’, NYT, History degree), Jonathan Capehart (‘American Journalist’, MSNBC host, PoliSci degree), William Brangham, (‘American Journalist’ for PBS, Bachelor of Arts degree).

So the Canadian born ‘cultural commentator’ states “…to be on our air and our newspapers, you got [sic] to have some intellectual credibility. You have to have some primary commitment to the truth and the truth above partisanship. And she (Ronna McDaniel) was someone who clearly fails that test.”

Really? Whose “air”? Whose “newspapers”? Who made the “intellectual credibility” requirement? What “test” did she “fail” Or is that just typical condescension reserved for “Deplorable Republicans”?

These are the glittering generalities mouthed by commentators cum journalists that go unchallenged, unquoted while blatantly contradicting their own “principles”.

“Primary commitment to the truth and truth above partisanship”? Since “air” and “newspapers” weren’t specified, consider the ‘primary commitment to the truth” of:

Donna Brazile (employed  at ABC, admitted liar and cheater ‘without remorse’);

John Brennan, (senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC News and MSNBC), spied on Congressional Republicans; one of the 51 signers of the discredited “security” letter stating the Hunter Biden laptop was “Russian information operation”;

George Stephanopoulos (ABC) currently being sued for Libel; notorious scandal fixer in the Clinton administration;

Simone Sanders (MSNBC) Weekend host, worked in the Biden presidential campaign in 2020 and was a senior advisor for Vice President Kamala Harris;

The list goes on and on.

Quoting Glenn Greenwald: ”What you're seeing here is the liberal ethos that I think is so important to understand, the reason Democrats never objected to the hiring of obviously Democratic Party spokespeople, but even the heads of the CIA, the head of the FBI, the head of the NSA, all kinds of former Pentagon officials is because they don't regard those us security state agencies as menacing or dishonest. They regard those as their benevolent allies.”

But I digress…

Off track from the original discussion, it’s easy to get into the weeds of details and the quicksand of the Political – Media Complex when searching for the common sense of basic truth.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read and comment constructively on my original premise. While there is “room to disagree” on several fronts, I maintain that anyone claiming the title “Journalist” must come with the degreed qualifications. There are ample acceptable and accurately applicable job titles that do not falsely claim the title others have earned academically, despite having a college degree in some other field of study.

To that point, History, English, PoliSci and other degrees do not require completion of subjects demanded of Journalists, most of which should be obviously important to anyone looking for Integrity and Accuracy is the news. Here is the list of Journalism subjects Cassie had to pass to earn her degree:

Public Comm        

Comm & Society   

Broadcasting in the Public Interest

Producing the Message    

News Gathering and Reporting  

Film production for TV

TV/Radio Performance

Programming for TV/Radio

Comm Law & Ethics

TV/Radio News

Broadcast News Reporting

Special Events Broadcasting

Simply stated, History and other majors mentioned, are not required to take Comm Law & Ethics.

That makes the “quality and content” of NBC/MSNBC News and conduct understandable.