One: J-School as School of Theology

At Columbia University you can study for a degree in religion and journalism. But they are two separate programs, joined by some fine courses in how to report on religion. Nowhere can you study for a degree in the religion of journalism-- that is, the belief system shared across editorial cultures in the American press. It would make a great course at Columbia, or NYU: "The Religion of the Press." Or even better: its priesthood:

Understanding the Priesthood of the Press. This course will examine the priesthood of the journalism profession in the United States, especially those at top news organizations in New York and Washington. Among the questions we'll be asking this term: How does this elite group create and maintain its authority over what counts as serious journalism? What sense of duty goes along with being one of the high priests? What are the god terms and faith objects in journalism, and how are they derived?

Other questions: Through what means can a "priesthood" operate in the skeptical environment of the American newsroom? What are the major challenges to its authority, and where do they come from? What lessons do journalists at the top of the pyramid preach to others in the news tribe, and how good is the example set among the priests themselves, all of whom are active in editing, shaping, and reporting the news?

You get the idea. There is a high church in journalism, with high ceremonies, like the awarding of a Pulitzer Prize, joining the panel on Meet the Press, having a dart thrown at you by the Columbia Journalism Review. One could teach a course about it. Bill Moyers once said this while moderating an event at Columbia: "I think of CJR and the J-School as sort of the "high church" of our craft, reminding us of the better angels of our nature and the demons, powers and principalities of power against which journalism is always wrestling."

The better angels. Journalism needs those. In this sense, it might be said to need a religion. For how else are angels called?

In January, 2003, I spoke on a panel at Columbia. This was a time when the place was in tumult over President Lee Bollinger's sequence of dramatic (and highly unusual) moves-- suspending the search for a new Journalism Dean. Bollinger, in one of his first public battles as president, then engaged in written argument with the School and its faculty over what an education in journalism should be today. That was big news in the City, and a national story for a few days.

He then called together an All-Star advisory team, (largely the right coast elite of the profession) to meet with him at the Century Club in Manhattan, where they discussed what a journalism education should be today. Finally he named New Yorker writer Nick Lemann as Dean, which was one of the smartest things any president could have done. (I wrote about Bollinger's moves here, and edited a special website about the issue here.)