Journalism and journalism and correcting my boo-boo

*Keys to teen interest in news?
Following a Harvard University study on the low
interest of teenagers in getting hard news in
newspapers and online, my question is: What’s the key
to getting them interested? It may be in two
locations: The home and the classroom. Kids will be
interested in current events if parents are interested
in current events. And they will be engaged in the
classroom if they’re presented details about current
events in an interesting way.
The current standardized-test-heavy curriculums in
many classrooms across the country, including Florida,
don’t lend themselves to a critical study of current
events. That has to change, if Americans want a
brighter future for this country. We have to know
what’s going on in order to have – and elect – the
best and the brightest.

*Why Jacobson needed to be fired and what did WBBM do?
Another key to gaining the interest of young people in
the news: Make sure reporters act ethically.
Again, Amy Jacobson, fired the other day from
WMAQ-Channel 5 in Chicago, did not act ethically when
she was at the house of the estranged husband of a
missing woman, in her swimsuit and with her children.
Jacobson apparently had a tendency to try to get close
– too close - to her sources to get information. That
crosses the line of impartial, honest and honorable
journalism. I would imagine her personnel file had
included previous reprimands for that sort of thing,
and if it didn’t it should have.
Some have suggested sexism. My problem isn’t that she
was in a swimsuit. My problem is that she was there,
period, and with her kids, yet. The professional
became personal.
Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune writes that
Jacobson is on her “Image Rehab Tour.” Here’s what she
should say: “I violated journalism ethics by going to
the Sebac house with my kids. It crossed the line that
is necessary between reporters and their sources. I
blew it, and I’m sorry.” Then, she should catch up on
what she apparently didn’t learn about journalism
ethics in J-school.
That’s what she should do. However, what she is doing
is the usual celebrity mea culpa-rehabilitation jazz,
which will probably wind up with her doing a tabloid
or reality show someplace. My best hope is that
journalists and journalism students who do care about
being responsible learn from what she did.
(CORRECTION: By the way, I believe I wrote that
Jacobson and her family had been swimming at the Sebac
home. I goofed. Apparently, they were in their
swimsuits on their way to another locale when they went to
the Sebac place. I’m sorry for making that
mistake.)
WBBM, the station that ran the footage of Jacobson,
may not be guiltless, either. There are questions
about how the station obtained the video and its
process in bringing it to air.
Bob Steele of the Poynter Institute writes about the
case: