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Is It Time To Close Journalism Schools? [1]

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Date: 2025-03-25

That is an odd question in these times, I will grant you, but I am becoming more and more convinced that journalism schools are a hinderance to journalism. Before any reporters or reporter adjacent people completely melt down, let me explain. It may take a minute or two, but I do promise we will get there in the end.

The New York Times recently did a write up trying to explain AI computing, by which it largely means imitative AI systems. As part of that package was a graphic that claimed that AI had invented parallel computing. I cannot stress to you how wrong this is. It is sun rises in the West, the Civil War was not fought over slavery, Guy Carbonneau belongs in the Hall of Fame level wrong. No one who knew either jack or shit, much less both, about computing would ever have allowed something so misleading into print. But the New York Times, supposedly the top newspaper in the country, did.

Now, you may be wondering what the big deal is. First, if you are explaining something to people you should tell them the truth. I should be able to stop there, but these kinds of mistakes make the people who push AI look much smarter than they really are. Wow, they invented a whole new way to program! They must be really smart! Maybe we should listen to them when they tell us AGI (Artificial General Intelligence — which has bene a decade away for about seventy years now) is going to take all our jobs and they deserve all the money and energy for creating it!

That certainly seems to be Ezra Klein’s attitude. In a recent podcast and opinion piece he claimed that AGI is going to happen - soon — because of imitative AI. Why? Because people in business and government told him so! Imitative AI is not going to lead to AGI. They only people who seem to think so are those tied up in the imitative AI business or business and government people who are influenced by those folks. Klein is not stupid, but he doesn’t know anything about, well, anything technical. And so, he falls for whatever sounds great, whatever makes a good story, whatever is easy to tell. And Klein is considered a good journalist, which highlights the problem.

Journalism school doesn’t teach anything but how to journalism. And that is nowhere near sufficient to report on important issues. The inverted pyramid, getting quotes from all sides, how and when to use “allegedly” in a crime story are not sufficient skills to actually explain the world. And of course, I am oversimplifying in a way that probably enrages journalists and journalism professors. I have two responses to that complaint. First re-read the opening paragraphs again and note just how terrible, terribly wrong supposedly smart journalists were (Seriously — Guy Carbonneau belongs in the Hall of Fame level wrong! That’s very wrong!). Second, look at any significant political reporting from the last thirty years.

The New York times went all in on the Iraq war, despite people pointing out massive flaws in their reporting at the time. But their reporters trusted their sources. The political press took a lie from the GOP press operation and claimed that Al Gore claimed he invented the internet. Theranos and WeWork were given glowing press until they couldn’t hide their reality any more — reporting done largely by reporters with no background in science or by reporters who were too chummy with their sources. Most political journalist treat political races as horse races, either because they don’t understand policy or they don’t like to talk about it. Yes, there are examples of good reporting that helps explain what is going on. But they are the exception, not the rule. And I suspect that the rule happens because journalists only learn journalism.

I don’t think journalism should be a degree. In a perfect world, you would take people who know about the subject — labor, science, economy, business, environment, etc. — and teach them how to write legally sound and factually accurate pieces in an apprenticeship model at actual news institutions. Perhaps, at best, journalism is an add on to your degree — political science with a concentration in journalism, for example. You would likely find a lot of people who would like the idea of reporting on their subject matter if given the opportunity.

I know that the finances of news reporting right now do not support that model. Any writing I do is a hobby because I can make a lot more money implementing technology as compared to reporting on it. But news reporting is in a financial free for all regardless, and a lot of smart people are thinking about how to solve that problem. I think they also need to solve the greater problem — how to make sure the people who report on a subject know at last enough to know when they are being bullshitted. It serves no one if we find a way to revive journalism financially only to find that we are stuck with rah-rah tech reporting and elections being treated as horse races. We live in interesting, dangerous times. We cannot afford any more Guy Carbonneau belongs in the Hall of Fame level wrongness.

In conclusion: Guy Carbonneau does not belong in the Hall of Fame.

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