BALTIMORE -- The former head of the Poynter Institute blasted the "evils that plague journalism" as the AEJMC convention drew to a close Aug. 7.

Robert J. Haiman, now a fellow at The Freedom Forum Media Studies Center in New York, spoke after being named the 1998 recipient of the Gerald M. Sass Award for Distinguished Service to Journalism by the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Haiman said the solutions to the recent rash of media missteps may seem complicated but in fact are quite simple:

• Stop using anonymous sources. "Stop letting yourself be used by the leakers. ... Print or broadcast only what you or your organization can verify as factual."
• Stop acting like celebrity show-offs. "Stop accepting invitations to parties at the White House where the food is good, the booze is free and everything is off the record. ... Stop ass-kissing the people you're supposed to be covering."
• Look closely at where literary journalism has led writers. "Let's be sure that our admonitions to journalists to make their stories soar with the power of great fiction have not led us to tell them that it's more important that a quote soar than it is that it be true."
• Stop giving lip service to the cause of diversity. "Stop being so white, so male, so straight, so relentlessly middle-class ... and take a sledgehammer to the glass ceiling."
• Stop being so politically correct. "Stop giving ammunition to those who argue the press has a liberal tilt. ... Too many reporters find it difficult to give a fair shake to those they don't agree with."
• Stop being so afraid to critique fairly and directly the work of other journalists and news organizations. "I'm not talking about taking easy shots at Geraldo Rivera or Matt Drudge. ... Journalists should [critique] the behavior and performance of the press as they do for every other instititution."
• To publishers and news exectives in particular: Stop being so mindlessly focused on slashing resources to increase profits. "Stop paying young reporters such niggardly wages [and only offering] unpaid internships. You ultimately destroy the only genuine asset publishers have. ... There is a special seat in the hottest corner of hell for those who succeed at their work."
• To editors and news directors in particular: Stop being such wimps when it comes to questioning reporters. "You are the leading authority to reporters and writers. Set high ethical and professional standards [and] enforce them rigorously." Haiman said he was particularly incensed when editors and news executives at CNN, The New Republic and other organizations refused to take responsibility for their reporters' behavior. "What sickened me the most was not the behavior of the journalists, but the quotes from people who are supposed to be their editors, supervisors and bosses. ... [This is] spineless, flaccid, fuzzy leadership."
• To all journalists: "Stop bashing journalism education for all its sins, real and imagined, when there is so much wrong in your professional houses. If you think journalism education could use some help, why don't you offer some?"

But the audience of journalism educators listening to Haiman didn't escape unscathed. He saved his final admonition for the journalism school deans and directors who make up ASJMC:

"If I were a journalism dean or chair or department head, I would go home and ask myself ... how well are we in our schools addressing the real problems and challenges of the professional world we are sending our graduates into?

"I'm proposing that the principal leaders of the academic journalism community take the lead in taking responsibility for what's wrong with the professional practice of journalism today, [because they] produce the people who populate the profession."

Haiman said teaching students right from wrong -- that none of their work should ever be "made up" -- is "more important than teaching students about news on the Internet or preparing them for careers in multimedia [or] how to publish 'zines [or] the protocols of public journalism."

"Hold onto your dreams and raise your aspirations. Don't give up on the professional news media," he said.

	1998 AEJMC Convention
	'Civic journalism' talk pervades AEJMC sessions 8.24.98 U.S. reporters in Tokyo don't speak much Japanese 8.11.98 Journalism educators to spotlight technology in '99 8.10.98 Ex-Poynter chief scorches 9 bad habits of journalism 8.10.98 Educators offended by Rolling Stone article on j-schools 8.7.98 Newspapers have made great strides online, educators told 8.7.98 Educator defines press-public discrepancy over fairness 8.6.98 Some professors trash First Amendment, ombudsman says 8.6.98 Journalism teaching goals: critical thinking, First Amendment grasp, passion 8.5.98