Idaho J-School Prof: Palin's Wrong About Ethics

Sarah Palin believes her training in journalism qualifies her as a press critic. "I have a degree in journalism... so it surprises me that so much has changed since I received my education in journalistic ethics all those years ago," she told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt yesterday, suggesting that she was a victim of "gotcha" tactics in her gaffe-filled interviews with ABC's Charles Gibson and CBS's Katie Couric.

Maybe she's right that a lot has changed -- because the journalism professor in charge of teaching ethics at the Republican vice presidential candidate's alma mater doesn't seem to think his department's most famous student has a firm grasp of the subject.

"I didn't see any violation of ethical practice" by Couric or Gibson, says Abubakar Alhassan, who teaches a course entitled "Mass Media Ethics" at the University of Idaho's School of Journalism and Mass Media. Although she attended several colleges, it was from the University of Idaho that Palin received her degree.

"I think the media that's had the opportunity to interview her was just giving her that opportunity to explain to people the controversies out there she hasn't spoken about," he says. "I don't think they asked any 'gotcha' questions. I don't think a question about which it turns out she doesn't know much is a 'gotcha' question."

Alhassan, who was not yet teaching at Idaho when Palin studied there in the mid-1980s, believes Palin was simply surprised to be caught off guard in interviews after the lengths to which her campaign's press operation went to shield her from hostile questioners. "Her media strategists are the ones who decided she would talk to those journalists, maybe because they felt it would be a safe bet. If I were her media strategists, I would've anticipated those questions, and I would've prepared her to answer them."

Perhaps they just figured a candidate who reads every publication in existence would be a little savvier about the ways of reporters?

Update, 3:04 p.m.: A spokeswoman for the director of the journalism school, Kenton Bird, sent this response to my query via email:

The University of Idaho taught its first journalism course in 1918. Over the past 90 years, the curriculum has combined writing and editing skills with a solid foundation of knowledge of First Amendment law, journalism ethics and professional practices.

Mass Media Ethics is a required course for all majors in our School of Journalism and Mass Media - as it was when Gov. Palin was a student here in the 1980s. While we are unable to provide transcripts for students (under Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), then, as now, this course emphasizes the moral foundation for decision making by media professionals, and includes case studies drawn from journalism, broadcasting, advertising and public relations.

Of course, I can't speak to the types of ethical situations Gov. Palin might have discussed in her journalism courses at the University of Idaho more than 20 years ago. But almost everyone on our faculty today has spent time as a working journalist, PR practitioner, broadcaster or advertising agency executive, and is familiar with the daily challenges that media professionals face. The fundamentals of ethical behavior are part of all of our mass media courses - not just the one-semester course devoted to that topic.

In all of our courses, we emphasize critical thinking and the ability to analyze information from a variety of sources. With ethics in particular, we don't provide the 'right' answers to particular situations -- we provide a framework of questions so that students can come to conclusions on their own.

• Lunch at the Four Seasons: What's the Tab?
• How Much Is Tina Fey Worth, Anyway?
• Lighten Up! Humor Consultants Help in Tough Times
• Credit Crunched: A Special Report on Wall Street Chaos