News Dissector: Al Gore, Journalism
Teacher, Danny Schechter, MediaChannel
Al Gore’s choice to teach journalism at Columbia University shows
who can set the political agenda. In his weekly column on
MediaChannel.org, ‘News Dissector’ Danny Schechter,
himself a former adjunct journalism professor at Columbia, dissects
Gore’s recent decision to quietly enter academia. Though Schechter
points out the irony of Gore’s attempt at a ‘low-profile,
off-the-record debut as an adjunct professor at the Graduate School
of Journalism at Columbia University in the heart of media-crazed
New York City,’ he also acknowledges the sanctity of the classroom.
He goes so far as to criticize journalists for their sanctimonious
tendencies. ‘We American reporters tend to wrap ourselves in the
First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press as if it
guarantees whatever license we seek,’ he writes, ‘And when we are
rejected or ejected from any venue, especially when a journalism
school bars journalists, we scream bloody murder.’
–Sara V.
Buckwitz
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