Our future journalists seem to care as much about ethics on par with our present MSM media. Seems the students of Columbia's Journalism School have been taking lessons from the NYT and the AP as well as a few others on "Ethics".
In all honesty, what do we expect from these kids? They look to the New York Times and see their "examples" reporting leaks that endanger our law enforcement officers lives, they look to AP and see them reporting from sources that may or may not exist about incidents that may or may not have happened and they think this is how it is done.
From Radar Online:
Cheating on an ethics exam? It sounds like the setup for a joke. But a group of grad students at Columbia's journalism school are suspected of having done just that, according to a source at the institution.
Tomorrow, the entire student body is required to attend a special session of "Critical Issues in Journalism," an ethics course taught by New York Times columnist Samuel Freedman. In an e-mail announcing the meeting last week, vice dean David Klatell stated only that there had been a "serious problem" with the final exam. Failure to attend the session, Klatell warned, would result in a failing grade for the course.
Neither Klatell nor Freedman responded immediately to calls for comment, but students believe the purpose of the meeting is to exhort suspected cheaters to step forward. "It's an 'Out yourself or you'll all have to suffer' situation," says the source.
"Critical Issues," an all-school seminar, focuses on dilemmas facing journalists in the post-Judith Miller and Jayson Blair era. The class includes topics such as "Why be Ethical?" and "Tribal Loyalty vs. Journalistic Obligation." The final exam consists of two essay questions to be completed in 90 minutes. Since the test can be taken at any time during a 36-hour period, students are instructed not to discuss the exam questions with each other.
In this case, it seems a few of the aspiring Woodwards and Bernsteins were a little too adept at working their sources. No word on how the school's administration got wind of the cheating.
If the disgruntled posts on RateMyProfessors.com are any indication, Freedman's students haven't exactly been soaking up his sermons.
"Maybe he could e-mail his 'speeches' to the students instead of making everyone suffer through the most wasted class in j-school (collective punishment?). His ethical Fridays were a pompous exercise in self-adulation. He seldom talks about the readings and a typical speech always begins, 'In (fill in year here).'"
Now this I so like from the NYT and so appropriate that it is them reporting on this.
Students in the course, which is required of all students in Columbia’s basic journalism master’s program, have been told they must attend a specially scheduled additional session of the course today in connection with the exam. About 200 students took the course this fall.
“We have encountered a serious problem with the final exam, and will not register a passing grade in the course for anyone who does not attend,” David A. Klatell, vice dean at the school, wrote in an e-mail message, which was forwarded to a reporter by a student. Mr. Klatell did not respond to several telephone and e-mail requests for comment.
Mr. Lemann said that he was surprised that students might have been concerned about how they scored on the pass-fail exam, and that exams and grades at the school were rare.
“We are not a very grade-intensive institution,” he said. “Our school is run on a pass-fail basis.”
“Our students are strivers,” he added. “But they are striving to get good clips. It is not like law school, where fine differences in points make all the difference in the world.”
No, it doesn't make all the difference in the world, it is just a matter of making all the difference to the "truth".
The students think it is pretty amusing that they made the NYT, as witnessed over at the Tabloid, the blog for the Columbia students.
If our present day journalists do not give them a good example, what do we really expect them to learn?
Others weighing in on this:
Hot Air.
Michelle Malkin.
The American Pundit.
Scared Monkeys.
NewsBusters.
