Journalistic Credentials

Leftwingers are sneering at Joe the Plumber (Joe Wurzelbacher) becoming a war correspondent. These people obviously don't know or understand what "freedom of the press" means or how journalism works.

First of all, there's no certification to become a journalist. That means you don't need any education whatsoever to publish your thoughts. Your nail specialist at least has to get a license from the state to practice. But journalists? Nope. Any guy or girl can be a reporter.

About 35 years ago, newsrooms around the country decided that, to cover school board meetings, you really needed some shlub with a B.A. in communications (or a shlub that, at least, was in college trying to obtain that B.A.). That's because taking that Chemistry of Photography course made you a better picture-taker and fact-checker (true story: reporter is hired from fancy named paper. Writes story and gives to editor who asks, "Did you fact check this?" Reporter says, "I thought you had people who did that." Editor replies, "We do. They're called 'reporters.'").

Secondly, war correspondents have always come from a variety of backgrounds. Ernest Hemingway never went to college and I don't think the same sniffy news readers looking down on Joe Wurzelbacher would call Hemingway a hack.

There's also the most famous correspondent of World War II, Ernie Pyle, who never had a degree.

None of this is to say that having a bachelor's degree is a bad thing, but having a piece of paper doesn't make you a good reporter. What makes good reporters is a natural curiosity, a desire for truth, and a personality that allows a person to ask inconvenient questions, like how increasing taxes on business owners isn't punishing success.

Back when I was in school a million years ago, my teacher told us that it was important for journalists to be well-rounded; that is, a good reporter should know about a lot of things besides writing and sitting on his ass in front of a computer. The idea was that if a reporter understood the world around him, he'd be better at writing about the things he was covering. Unfortunately, today's news readers and P.R. hacks think that journalism is a "profession," and one only worthy of those chosen few who didn't flunk their exams in college because they were drinking too much the night before and who hold the proper opinions. Journalism is actually better when a variety of opinions and viewpoints get expressed.