"Getting your master's in journalism is as good as getting your master's in coal mining." -An editor, to a touring class of graduate students

As commenter David Klatt pointed out, this is a nice coincidink: Right on the day that we run a huge piece about whether or not it's still worth it to go to our nation's top journalism schools, one of Poynter's writers and visiting journalist at the Michigan State University School of Journalism answered some very similar queries from concerned students.

But wait! Even more coincidentally:

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The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism reached its fundraising goal of $100 million three years ahead of schedule, thanks to a generous donation by former student and 32nd richest man in the world, John Kluge.

Kluge donated $20 million to his alma mater, which probably means he just got sick and tired of all those Alumni Association bulletins he was getting in the mail every month Sorry John: don't you know that the more money you give, the more they are going to bug you?

In separate news: most New York public schools still going to shit. Go figure.

A mere $15 million can get your name in front of Arizona State University's journalist school. [AR]

Journalism schools are $35,000-a-year lessons on writing in the reverse pyramid format and practicing reading from a teleprompter. We should know: We went to one! It was the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, where the walls are lined with photos of people like Ted Koppel and Bob Costas, glaring at you with a message of, "We made it, so can you!"

Heh. Not exactly.

"J-schools should downplay anchor careers," argues blogger Corey Bergman. "If you work in local TV news, what percentage of your interns in the last couple years have said they want to become anchors? In my experience, the number is 50 percent or greater. But let’s look at the trends. News consumption is shifting fast to the 'anchorless' internet. Stations are negotiating anchor salaries down and even moving some shows to a single news anchor format. Layoffs are growing increasingly common, and some TV stations are dropping news altogether. While I don’t like to shatter an intern’s anchor dreams, it’s time for a dose of reality. Journalism schools, as a public service, should strongly discourage students from pursuing an anchoring career." [LR]

For all those reasons, yes. And also.

The Big Picture author Jeffrey Scheuer argues j-schools are "service stations for professional journalism rather than independent centers of critical thinking about media, journalism and society" and "a feeder system for the journalism profession" and "remain stuck in the mid-twentieth century." For once, we have no counter-argument. [CJR]

GO 'CUSE Syracuse is down to two candidates to become their new j-school dean. [Syracuse.com]

Ten or 12 years ago, in his first editing job, “I’d have said, ‘Follow the traditional route [by starting out at small dailies], apprentice yourself to that mythical, grizzled editor … and build a body of work, and learn by doing it.’ But a lot of those local and regional papers no longer exist, a lot of those grizzled editors have been bought out, and along the way I’ve come to think of journalism schools as maybe the last resort in a lot of cases.”

-Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, on the new role of journalism school, from "Reviving the J-School," Andy Guess, Inside Higher Ed

The difference between being an associate professor and an assistant professor at a j-school? Nearly twenty thousand dollars. The difference between a j-school professor and the dean? Eighty K, at least according to Arizona State University's public salary rankings.

It's usually pretty easy to skip over Salon advice hander-outer Cary Tennis' column (another bored housewife? Yey!), but today the letter he answered move us to spend more than the usualy 6.57 seconds skimming through. Because when a j-schooler who thinks he's chosen the wrong career path writes in for advice, the least we can do is bump up our allotment to 9.2, maybe 9.88 seconds. Submits "Shivering Scribbler":

When I decided to try a journalism career, I thought it would be a good antidote to these sorts of tendencies. And sometimes it is. On good days, it's pretty exhilarating to be able to learn about all different kinds of things. I feel like a member of the human race, engaged and even a little powerful.

But on the bad days — generally the days that involve any sort of uncomfortable questions, or even worse when I have to ask uncomfortable questions of a source I've come to like — I just wish I could disappear, die, erase myself. And I'm nauseated by the thought that my work will appear under my name — that everyone will know I'm responsible for this crap, that they will tear me to shreds for my ignorance, my biases, my moronic misinterpretations of their lives.

Silly Shivering Scribbler, everybody knows that when journalism is too scary, you always turn to blogs. You don't have to ask uncomfortable questions, because you don't confirm your sources' information. You don't have to use a byline, because anonymous blogging can work for up to six months before anyone finds out who you are. And nobody can tear you to shreds if you simply send their hateful emails to your spam folder.

Glad we could help!

Boston University journalism department chairman Bob Zelnick is leaving his administrative gig, but not before issuing a statement so against the j-school grain, the reverberations were surely felt from Syracuse to Chicago. You see, Zelnick wants to separate the journalism tract from its communications cousins, advertising and public relations, a move surely to devestate Jared Paul Stern types.

In a statement, Zellnick, chairman during four of his eight years at BU, said in a statement that he thinks it’s time for BU to give thought to “divorcing” the journalism department from its advertising and public-relations cousins within the College of Communications.

“The two should be raised as adversaries,” said Zelnick of journalism and the more commercially focused sides of media operations.

A fair argument, we say. But having left j-school an era ago (almost 16 months ago!), we decided to turn to a higher authority: Intern Calista.

I disagree - Journalists should be able to know how to take on the Lizzie Grubmans of the world, using their own PR/advertising methods against them. Okay, that sounds a little evil, but we don't want to end up out of a job like intern Jennifer Posey.

Luckily, working for Jossip, Calista needn't worry about ever getting a job like Jennifer Posey, let alone losing it.

BU journalism debate: Prof wants to split PR off from program [Jay Fitzgerald, Boston Herald]

• You know that whole ethics thing where reporters aren't supposed to accept any swag from anyone? Yeah, Richard Johnson and his entire staff must have skipped that class. [Daily News]

• Katie Couric, on the cover of Newsweek. God print media, this is so last week. [Fishbowl, NY]

• Turns out J-Schoolers just getting out of college won't only be greeted by coworkers who aren't very hot, but the job market's not looking too good, either. [CNN]

• Forget The Devil Wears Prada, Ann Coulter's soulless bod sports Spandex. [Drudge]

• The price of nobody wanting to take your picture? You have to relinquish your "secret Hollywood salary." [WSJ]

• Giant magazine lives up to its name in staff cuts. [Gawker]

• Hachette's new website is so bad, it's even worse than Office Pirates. We didn't think it was possible, but simulating sex next to a car bombing? That's wrong even in our book. [WWD]

Forget MTV Spring Break. This year, we wanted to know what the NYU J-Schoolers were doing on their time off.

Not only because they vacated Washington Square Park a few weekends ago, leaving the city to enjoy the beautiful weather without them, but because we're sure they were spreading their wings, enjoying the sweet breath of youth, and we wanted to relive our old college days vicariously through them.

Here are their accounts of the 10 days we were free from (most of) them:

"I worked at the Palladium a whole lot. Read some Dostoevsky, and started teaching myself Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu out of this book I just bought." —Zack, Junior

"I went to Miami. Got tanned, got laid. The end." —Emily, Sophomore

"My dad, my brother and I rented out this U-Haul truck which we sat on top of to watch car races and drink beers." —Justin, Junior

"Took a plane to London (5 days) and Dublin (3 days) for St. Patrick's Day. In London we did all the touristy things - really walked around everywhere. It was four of my guy friends and me … me and the boys. Awesome Time." —Laura, Sophomore

"I blogged for Gizmodo, played video games with my brothers and watched Fox Soccer Channel." —Nicholas, Sophomore

"I just went home and did a lot of cooking, cleaning, and babysitting." —Lauren, Sophomore

Babysitting, blogging, and getting laid in Miami? Yeah, some of that $2 million should have gone to the journalism department.

On Tuesday night, Columbia journalism students will get a real treat. Bonnie Fuller herself is going to speak to a select group of 50 aspiring reporters.

Topics will include writing cover lines, advice on succeeding in the industry, and the importance of carrying a Prada bag.

But, really what can she say to these poor kids, who, come May, will be desperately scouring the job market? Quit now, and stop wasting your money on a journalism degree, which will get you nowhere in life. Oh, wait, she sort of already said that.

"I've hired excellent people who've gone to journalism school and excellent people who haven't. When I look at résumés, I don't really pay attention to that.

Of course Bonnie doesn't care if you went to journalism school. Are you willing to sleep under your desk? Can you find pictures of Britney Spears looking like a fat-ass? Do you have what it takes to hang around celebrities and find out what they were drinking and who they were making out with in the corner of Bungalow?

We're sure that Ms. Fuller will bring her industry wisdom to these young, impressionable minds. At least she's guarenteed to make a bigger impression than Lowdown's "I think his name is Lloyd Grove."

Star Pupils [Jeff Bercovici, WWD]

Jayson Blair. Judy Miller. Bob Woodward. Jon Friedman. All reasons the media industry's bad rap keeping on spitting lyrics.

But all this squabbling over Valerie Plame hasn't deterred the Range Roving j-schoolers, who see this recent spat of journalistic malpractice as the ideal era to enter the field.

"When I graduate in May, there's a very good chance that the industry will be in a total recession," says Jared Novack, editor of The Daily Orange at Syracuse University.

Yet despite trying times, students and journalism professors say that interest in joining the news business remains high and that the adversity shaking the industry could make it stronger.

"There's no question that the hits keep on coming," says Tom Kunkel, dean of the University of Maryland journalism school. "But whatever has been happening in the media certainly has not been diminishing the students' enthusiasm."

Applications — which have been on the rise since Watergate — "keep going up," he says. "And the need for great journalism has never been stronger, as the world gets more complicated."

So bring on the scandal, the irresponsibility and the oblivious editors. Communications schools need those tuition dollars bad, folks. Just last weekend we were on hand as (our alma mater) Syracuse's own Newhouse school broke ground ground on its third building.

And, as we watched Donald Newhouse rev the bulldozer, we knew it would only take Maureen Dowd's sex tape to get enrollment to double.

Scandals don't deter students [USA Today]
Related: Newhouse III Webcam [Syracuse University]

• All it took for ABC's evening news to finally beat NBC? Peter Jennings' death, ya'll.

• Bob Woodward's insider look at Deep Throat is barely making ripples on the newsstand. The Secret Man's tales of Watergate moved only 61,000 units in its first five weeks, which makes us think the readily available Vanity Fair article – oh, and all that incessant cable news coverage – was more than enough for everyone.

• Mike Savage loves it when you throw your hate mongering in his direction, so don't stop now.

• Salon is cutting lose its 4,000 members of The Well, the online community founded in 1985 and bought by the indie online publisher in 1999. Those dwindling number of users who still debate politics and philosophy on The Well may soon be bashing Bush under another corporate umbrella, as Salon is opening it up to buyers.

• Once again we're reminded of the all-powerful New York Times. With the stroke of a keyboard, editorial page editor Gail Collins can make or break a local politico. She also looks great in black latex.

• Despised Us Weekly exec editor Lori Majewski is a goner, but by her own volition. She's jumped ship to her former home at Teen People, where celebrites are assaulted only slightly less.

• J-school prof Denny Wilkins isn't sure whether to lie to his students about the media industry and that it's all about the cash, not the journalism, these days. But these kids are bright folks, we're sure they'll quickly figure it out when they're trying to break through the $30,000 salary ceiling.

PressThink's Jay Rosen opens up a very serious discussion (also known as the type we consciously avoid engaging in) on "Things I used to teach that I no longer believe," expanding on a panel he partcipated in wherein j-school profs waxed nostalgic on their instructional leanings.

Among the storytelling was the story of one j-schooler who gave up a $200,000 scholarship "just to get out of journalism." And no, that's not our autobiography. But what'd Jay have on his own list?

For many years I taught in my criticism classes that pointing out bias in the news media was an important, interesting, and even subversive activity. At the very least an intellectual challenge. Now it is virtually meaningless. Media bias is a proxy in countless political fights and the culture war. It’s effectiveness as a corrective is virtually zero.

Which, to us, sounds like an invitation to quit disclosing conflicts of interest. Because least of all would we be looking to support the terrorists fueling this "culture war." Meanwhile, he's also getting all Jon Klein up in here, slamming the lid on the deluge of critics.

Alas, I used to teach that the world needs more critics; but it was an unexamined thing. Today I would say that the world has a limited tolerance for critics, and while it always needs more do-ers, it does not always need more chroniclers, pundits, or pencil-heads.

Crankiness aside, where does that leave us? We're clearly not do-ers but recyclers, spinners and often talking heads. Maybe CNN blog reporter Jacki Schechner has some answers for us.