Journalism Is Itself a Religion - Page 3

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.)

At a mid-point in these events, the alumni group at Columbia sponsored a public forum on journalism schooling and its future. The real topic was Bollinger's actions and what they meant. A good crowd came that evening because the alumni were concerned. Almost everyone had something to say on whether Bollinger was asking the right questions, or meddling with a great program, or worse.

I had taken a position on these events in the Chronicle of Higher Education--pro-Bollinger, but also read Bollinger, please--so I was asked to join the panel that night; and I learned something there. At the close of a long evening of debate, I wanted to tell the group--the graduates--how much I admired the Columbia J-School, the history of which I had studied.

I said they had passed through not only a great professional training ground in journalism, but a "great school of theology." It's like a divinity degree, I said. Smart people entering the profession learn the religion of journalism, and acquire their faith in a free press, among many other practical lessons.

Only rarely does a public speaker know that the audience as a whole "got" something. This was one of those times. At the words "school of theology," I saw a very large number of alumni smile or nod. They could see how this fit their experience. In J-school, they learned what it means to be virtuous, even righteous, although their education no doubt stopped short of recommending any "crusade" in journalism. (Crusades are against the religion, you see.)

They also absorbed a sense of what's sacred, what's profane in journalism-- as with the wall between the news and business sides of the operation. The wall is commonly called the "separation of church and state" by newsroom pros, who speak metaphorically yet with great passion and precision about keeping this barrier intact. And who is the church in that comparison? It isn't the counting room, it's the newsroom. The church is supposed to be journalism. The money side is supposed profane.

Article Author: Jay Rosen

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