Northwestern Columnist Questions Dean’s Anonymous Sources
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UPoNxe
Medill Marketing Prof. Smears J-School Student Spett
The Medill story is old news by now, but since US News is so widely read, especially for the college rankings info, this might be of interest to anyone considering applying to J-school.
Check out how Medill's (I'm so not kidding, either) Chief Marketing Officer attacks an investigative journalist's credibility just because the investigative journalist did investigative journalism.
http://journalistsspeak.blogspot.com/2008/03/zorn-haydens-letter-petulant-and-weak.html
Seriously. Click on the link, there, and read the letter from Hayden, which apparently also went out on some type of internal listserv, an official channel of communication, if I'm correct in the facts surrounding this issue.
They attack the reputations and credibility of their own J-school students for merely doing an investigative journalism piece? Unbelievable.
While there are still many fair-minded people at Northwestern, it's utterly outrageous that when criticized, some professors at the school get defensive and start attacking the students.
It's bad enough that some of the political radicals attack the more right-leaning students in the other schools with smears and attacks on reputation (seriously, it's no big secret that many many even slightly-right-of-center students get attacked from time to time by various unprofessional radicals, some of whom serve on boards and committees in the various schools), but to attack a journalist for being a journalist is truly the lowest of lows for Northwestern.
Lazy and dishonest
It is by no means understandable that he did this, and it is not minor at all. He did willfully deceive in this letter. That other students have said they enjoy their classes is not a valid defense for putting something in quote marks. He should know better. If it's in quotes, it is not paraphrased.
Yes it was a year ago, but emails stay much longer than that. He claims to have contacted Microsoft, but this is not relevant. He is the dean of the journalism school, so of course he was using Northwestern mail, which archives everything. So he even lied about the lack of a paper trail.
Finally, I wouldn't say that Spett's effort will make the school hold itself to a higher standard. It already had the highest standards, and as proof, people are up in arms about what he did.
Sloppy, not hypocritical or ignorant
Let's be good journalists ourselves. Lavine was a nationally syndicated columnist for decades in addition to being both a business and newsroom guy back in the day. So he has plenty of street cred though that's simply not the point. It was a sloppy error but in fairness, Lavine's letter ran almost a year ago and did any of us catch it? My feeling is that it's somewhat understandable that for something so minor-- a letter and marketing piece--he doesn't have the source material now, so much time later. Again, I consider that sloppy but not willfully deceptive. I suspect Spett's effort will help the school hold itself to a higher standard.
Amen
Amen.
Hypocritical or just ignorant?
The Medill dean, John Lavine, told the Tribune he wasn't writing a news story -- if he had been, he'd have been more careful with his sources. To a newsroom professional, that's not a valid distinction, but Lavine's a business side guy, not a newsroom guy. So he talks now about the importance of newsroom professionalism, but only in the context of "Do as I say, not as I do." He has no street cred.
David Spett - Medill Journalism School Dean
This David Spett fellow seriously ought to be invited to go on Jay Leno's show, or something (maybe even Oprah Winfrey?) as a fine example of a new crop of up-and-coming young journalists who are working hard to keep journalism honest.
Someone get Jay and Oprah on the phone to Northwestern. Chop chop.
Respect My Authoritah
Ahh, the kid should be drummed out of school. He should not be allowed to question authority!
Respect My Authoritah!!!!
