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Couple of things:
1) I recently watched All the President's Men. It is interesting to see just how much evidence Woodward and Berstien needed to come up with before they could file their accusations. They believed something but couldn't print it until they had strong enough proof.
"Strong enough proof" seems to have fallen by the wayside in today's press. Innuendo seems to be good enough. Stories that can defame are printed and reported because they are entertainment rather than something we really need to know.
2) I married a journalist. I went to school with her and sociallized with her friends in J School. The one thing that always struck me as odd was that Journalism could be Degree program. Students learned the craft of journalism (meeting deadlines, writing in proper form, etc). All worthy and certainly important things to know if you wish to be a journalist.
However, I always thought they had it a bit backward. I always thought Jounalism school should be more like a Teacher's Degree -- something you take AFTER your bachelor's degree. An arts degree is for one thing and one thing only (regardless of your major) it is to teach you how to research, analyse, distil and formulate a position and then present that position in a cogent fashion. A very useful skill.
Journalism majors learned a trade but left little time to actually understand things like world politics, etc.
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"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke
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