The Future Of Journalism Is Doomed!

The world has gone mad. Absolutely, stark raving, completely off its rocker, insane.

An alert reader sent this in:

from Jessica McBride's facebook page....

__________________

Jessica McBride is very happy today because the Chancellor officially approved her indefinite status! (the academic staff equivalent of tenure). This was the final step, and comes after a 7-0 positive vote from the review committee and a positive recommendation from the Dean. Thank you Chancellor Santiago and UWM!!!!! I am one of the ...fortunate people in that I love my job and love working with the students. Celebration time!!!!!

February 5 at 4:03pm

This was further confirmed in a tweet by James Wigderson.

I can't even imagine what would make the committee or Santiago think that this was a good idea.

Perhaps it was her catastrophically poor command of the English language.

Perhaps it was her not so high journalistic ethics standards.

But if I were a betting man, I would have to say that if you consider all the work she's been doing for WPRI lately, I would look for a very large monetary gift from the Bradley Foundation to UWM.

Equal treatment for lovebirds

Whether Jess and Eddie are still carrying on or not (and who cares, except Paul Bucher and Susan Flynn?), it's good to see that both are being treated fairly by their employers.

Ed Flynn is Milwaukee's chief of police, and his bosses, the mayor and the Fire and Police Commission, say they're sticking with him, affair or no affair, because he has been reducing crime in Milwaukee. Fair enough.

Meanwhile, Jessica McBride is a lecturer on journalism ethics and other matters at UW-Milwaukee's journalism department, whose executive committee recently voted 3-2 to give her what amounts to permanent status there. Presumably, that's because she has been reducing journalism ethics in Milwaukee. Fair's fair.

Lack Of Editorial Control

McBride, as we all know, is involved with the UWM School of Journalism's Frontpage Milwaukee. I just never knew how scary things actually were over there. From their "About Us" section:

Editorial Control

The faculty supervisor, acting as a faculty member in UWM's Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, has editorial control. Questions should be directed to Jessica McBride, at mcbridej@uwm.edu.

Sheesh. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, now she's thinking she got them mad editorial skillz.

First there is the question of whether she is even a faculty member, now there's the issue of falsely advertising herself as having editorial control.

H/T to Michael Horne

Defining faculty down

The proprietor of a local eponymous conservative hate/attack blog lashed back today at the suggestion bruited about in some quarters that she was misrepresenting herself for saying she was a university faculty member.

Not all liberal bloggers are worth exposing, of course. For example, someone just emailed me the latest liberal blog attack on me. An anonymous liberal hate blog is now libelously claiming that I'm misrepresenting myself by terming myself a university "faculty member", which is a title the JMC department's chairman specifically told me that I was authorized to use before I used it. In fact, if these rocket scientists had bothered going on the department website, they'd see JMC labels all instructional staff part of faculty, including ad hocs, who are working journalists who teach 1 class. These guys might also remember that I am married to a lawyer. If they keep defaming me, there might come a day I decide enough's enough. For now, I don't find them relevant enough to take such a stance, and I only find out about their libel piecemeal from others.

First off, rather than going by labels on a departmental web site the Brawler went by the UW system chapter of the Wisconsin Administrative Code. And it's quite clear: A lecturer -- which this eponymous liberal basher is -- is not faculty.

That said, it does appear that department head told this eponymous blogger that she could use said designation. And it seems (and this was a designation that the Brawler must admit he was ignorant of before originally posting) that a lecturer can have faculty status without having a faculty appointment. Presumably -- and the Brawler does not know definitively -- this would be the basis for the former radio host's claim. Check out 1.01 (1) B of UWM policy and procedures.

The language says:

Faculty status means the right to participate in the faculty governance of the university. Faculty status does not confer rank or tenure or convert an academic
staff appointment into a faculty appointment.

So apparently you can be a faculty member even if you don't have a faculty appointment.

Don't conservatives typically oppose titles or honors that are meant to make people "feel good" rather than recognize actual achievement?

And the reality is that under the WAC, Jessica McBride is not part of the faculty. She's part of the academic staff.

And that ain't libel!

UPDATE: Interesting observations in comments on the ins and outs of faculty/academic staff.

Hey, Teacher! Leave Them Kids Alone!

Brawler points out that McBride has been, shall we say, padding her credentials, with certain claims of having positions that she doesn't have. He also diligently follows up on this, and finds that she hasn't yet corrected this - ahem- oversight.

After reading this, and the comment thread, I almost felt sorry for her. So I thought I'd find a way to bolster her spirits, pick up her mood, and help her self-esteem. I thought, "Hey, none of us are her students, maybe she really is a good teacher, and just a bad blogger. Let's see what the kids think of her."

So I went to http://www.ratemyprofesser.com/ and looked up McBride. I found that she did have some students that had opinions to offer:

Its all about "me". This woman is has some real issues and needs to seek professional help. God help you if you if expose your moderate or left of center views

****************************************
Boring, and she doesn't stop talking about herself!

****************************************

Jessica tends to ramble about herself, her husband and child. She gets fixated on a few students. After taking her class, I don't know how UWM could give one biased a forum? I read a story in Milw Mag about how unfair she is. She herself admited that journalism wasn't fair. Huh? Perhaps she should teach creative writing. But she can't spell.

*****************************************
She teaches a class called itsallaboutme-ism

****************************************
Biased **** beyond belief. Trashed the integrity of the entire department. She grades based on how hard you appear to laugh at her boring stories. I used to sit there and count off how many minutes she would be late, and then how many she'd talk about her boring kid, or her stupid life or her trouble finding parking... Generally 1/3 of classtime was wasted on her general blabber. It's a VERY easy A though, if you're willing to kiss her ass.

Hmmm...I guess that wasn't a good idea after all. Sorry, Jessica. But it still raises the question: Why is she teaching? And: If she has to teach, is journalism the best choice for her?

Jessica McBride: Neither a Pulitzer Prize nominee nor a UW-M faculty member

A few months back, the left cheddarsphere had a great deal of fun pointing out how Charlie Sykes' claim that he was a "Pulitzer Prize nominee" was as hollow a boast as they come. (Short version: To say you're a nominee only means someone -- maybe even yourself -- has submitted your work for consideration to the Pulitzer committee. Ergo there are thousands of "nominees" every year.)
Not surprisingly, Sykes pupil Jessica McBride has a problem with her bonafides as well.

On her blog, Jessica has this to say about herself:

I am a journalism faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Master's degree, Mass Communication, 2004), a Waukesha Freeman newspaper columnist, and a former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter and talk radio host.

Unfortunately for Jessica, that bit bolded by the Brawler is factually untrue -- a killer error as the journalism kids call it. That's because Jessica is a lecturer at UW-M. And a lecturer, as defined by the UW System chapter of the Wisconsin Administrative Code, IS NOT considered faculty. Faculty consists of four classifications: professor, associate professor, assistant professor and instructor.

A lecturer like McBride is instead considered instructional academic staff.

(The classification of lecturer as instructional academic staff can be found on page 13 of this document.)

Now, obviously nothing is wrong with being a lecturer. In theory it's a noble activity. But, fairly or not, saying you're part of the "instructional academic staff" sounds a lot less impressive than saying you're part of the "faculty."

As far as the Brawler can see, Jessica misleads on her position at the university for one of two reasons:

1. She doesn't know that a lecturer is not considered faculty.



2. She knows a lecturer is not considered faculty but knows it'll sound more impressive to say she's on the faculty.

(One wonders if someone tried to set her straight on this ... obviously she knows people who know the distinction.)

So Jessica misidentifies herself either out of ignorance or outright deception.

Misrepresenting yourself -- with very few exceptions and this doesn't rise to that level -- is a big no-no in journalism. And it's certainly something that a journalism lecturer shouldn't be doing.

How soon will Jessica correct this misrepresentation?


And: Why is Jessica McBride teaching journalism?

UPDATE: Jessica responds.

Missing The Point

On Tuesday, the MSJ ran this editorial discussing why Madison is doing better at drawing businesses to its area than Milwaukee.

McBride, of course, misses the gist of the column. As one well-spoken and sensiblecommentator (obviously not one of McBride's students) points out:

Actually, that's not exactly what the article is saying. Rather, the editorial is making a point that many profs, deans, and other higher-ups at UWM have been making for years: Because UW Madison is the state's flagship research university, it is able to attract top notch researchers, lots of big grants,lots of state funding, etc. in a way that UWM or Marquette is not. As a result, more tech and other businesses come to Madison because the research infrastructre there (as a result of UW Madison) is the best in the state. And the more Madison grows as a center of private and university research, the more grants it will attract, the more funding it will receive, and the more businesses will want to move there.

But it is necessary to point out, UW-Madison is smarter that Milwaukee in one sense-They didn't hire McBride.