Georgia Gives Gilbert the Gag

Ok, in some ways that last post was a bit of a rant. I hadn't written anything on this blog for so long, I guess I was catching up. Though the issue of journalists becoming public intellectuals and commentators still makes me weary. I don't doubt that an intellectual can be born out of American schools of journalism. Though I am a bit put on guard when the reporter does more than reporting. Editorial Op. Eds. are one thing, as they clearly state their point by the mere title of the page--that they are not a report but an opinion.

The University of Georgia's independent student newspaper, The Red & Black, ran a story this past Thursday that made the daily news digest for MediaBistro, a leading resource organization for media artists. The article, found HERE uncovered a former Georgetown grad who was prancing around the lecture circuit touting that he was a foreign reporter for WCBS in New York. David Gilbert, who had actually only briefly been contracted to string for WCBS and was never on their payroll, had been traveling the university circuit presenting a propaganda message in favor of armed conflict, taking sides with a hard lined Israeli perspective. According to the Red & Black, journalism students questioned Gilbert's vitae, which was later discovered to be exaggerated.

I wonder if Gilbert had spent his Sunday mornings watching Bob Schafer on CBS and the weekly news round-up, wishing that he was one of leading reporters asked to give his or her views on the crisis in the Middle East. Incidentally, Gilbert’s minimum speaking fee was $1,000.

Good job for David Hazinski and the broadcast students at the Grady College of Journalism, for doing some serious investigative journalism and reporting. I can’t think of the last time I saw a student media group break into the daily news digest.