Thus Quotegate dies, not with a bang but with the sort of annoyed recriminations from officials that will be deeply familiar to anyone who’s ever read a news article. Eric Zorn concludes: “Even though I’m a Michigan alum, I have long recommended Medill to high school journalism students who ask me what colleges they should consider. Given the treatment of David Spett and the lack of commitment exhibited by the university to truth and open inquiry, I no longer feel I can make that recommendation.”
Maybe it’s not a bug; maybe it’s a feature. Spending a couple months trying to wring the truth out of an opaque, recalcitrant group of officials is great training, particularly for anyone wanting to go into Chicago news. Ironically, the people who seem to need the most training are the administrators. Maybe the question is not do you trust these people to teach journalism? but do you trust these people to teach marketing?
“This is one of the most exciting times in journalism history. Judge us by that.”