I can vouch that this was indeed the case where I studied.  I did not study journalism, but my school offered one of the most prestigious journalism programs in the country.  In fact, I would love to have taken journalism, but the school was so insulated from the rest of the university that no one outside it was able to take classes in it.  I studied broadcasting in depth, radio, TV and film production, and absolutely every aspect of media production and consumption.  But journalism was off limits.  And I never once ran into journalism students in the broadcast and media history and ethics classes I took.  I did know many students in this school of journalism who also studied international relations.  But they didn't study, say, Russian history.  They studied International relations.  Which is like studying, say, Journalism and not studying, say, Media and nationalism.  It's like they were living in bizarro world.  Most of the undergraduates I knew in the school of journalism aspired to be anchors.  It was a "fame" thing.  Not a "constitutional responsibility" thing.

Second, the American educational system does little to nothing to teach Americans about the rest of the world (the secondary schools being egregiously bad on this score), and the US is a very insular place to begin with. I'd reckon that if maybe a little more than half of American students with a college diploma can locate Belgium on a map (and forget about those with only high school diplomas), maybe one in five hundred can identify the two main linguistic communities there much less give you a bit of color and background as to the history and culture of these. They go to cover a land they know little to nothing about, and unsurprisingly they become unwitting vessels for whatever ignorant crap happens to be in the air the time deadline hits. I especially loved this one's treatment of vlaams belang in this regard.

Really, this is the crux of the matter of all discussion of America and what it is doing.  I was somehow lucky with my teachers.  But I was a weird kid who would rather hang out with my teachers then other students, and my inquisitiveness was rewarded.  I should add, the American educational system, yes (and trust me, it's not that the teachers don't want to teach this stuff, but that they are given little ability to) but the American parental system doesn't really do anything to demand it.  Those who would demand it send their kids to private school.    

Third, and this is probably the most damning, you have to be the child of wealthy parents to become a journalist in the US these days. How's this? First, j-school is not cheap by any means. Second, you don't make money to help pay for j-school or attendant expenses on summer holiday. No, if you want to work for the NY Times one day, that resume better be full of some good internships, starting now. And those internships, in the US they're mostly non-paid. So daddy and mommy are going to have to foot the bill for more than just school. And, once you're done with j-school? Another internship, this time perhaps paid (though quite poorly). Journalism is not a well paid profession when one is getting one's start. Want to get the Time's attention and catch on as a cub reporter? Probably best to work in New York. Not a cheap place to live, New York. So, daddy and mommy are going to have to foot some more bills. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what sorts of parents can afford to give their erstwhile budding reporter this kind of shot at big time journalism.

You probably have to be a child of wealthy parents to write for the WaPo or NYT.  My mom went to a dinky journalism school in southern Illinois and did investigative reporting for FOX News in St. Louis (of all places, but the local FOX news outlets really aren't so bad as the FOX cable news.)

And on that note, let me tell you what you left out.  My mom -who, in a nutshell, had the same values and writing talent as I- did investigative reporting for FOX News.  Between the time her stories were typed up and the time they aired, they'd undergone so much editing and polishing that any substance she'd put into them was gone.  There are a thousand excuses for this.  But my broadcast teacher once said, before a final exam, "If you don't know the answer, remember, the answer is always 'money.'"  News outlets have to make money.  News outlets want to make money.  News outlets are willing to chuck the news when it gets in the way of making money.  Requires too much attention or knowledge?  Not exciting and lurid enough?  Doesn't promote the agenda of advertisers?  Doesn't win you friends in high places?  Chuck it.  White House threatens to ruin your career if you report it?  Chuck it.

And it's the news.  So if it isn't reported, it didn't happen.  Right?  

I should add that the American public is generally aware of all of this.  And it is a contributing factor in the popularity of Right Wing Radio.  They know they are not being told the truth in traditional outlets.  They know the celebrity journalists belong to and elite class with no clue about how the rest of us live.  They know they are bought and paid for.  And this is in part why Right Wing Radio is so popular.  It acknowledges these fears and concerns and preys upon them.  Though I believe an equally strong factor in its popularity is that it's the last safe place to vocally hate blacks, Jews, liberals, women, Muslims, Mexicans, and anyone else they deem The Other.  

...

Frontline recently did a documentary on the state of journalism in America, News War, and I HIGHLY recommend that anyone who can watch it all.  It really drives home everything we are discussing here.  Very well done and worth the time.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.