Irving Kristol on Journalists

One of the reasons for this mindlessness is that the quality of the people now entering the media is very poor. People used to be recruited into the media more or less at random. Whether you became a journalist was a matter of luck that depended on whether a job happened to be available, whether you needed a job, whether you liked writing a bit.

Now, of course, we have schools of journalism. Most publications these days-- not all, thank God-- recruit from schools of journalism. That means they are recruiting from the bottom 40 percent of the college population since, on the whole, bright students do not go to schools of journalism. The very bright go on to work in the sciences. Those at the second level go to professional schools, such as law schools, or on to graduate work in the humanities and social sciences. At the third level, you get students going into schools of business. At the fourth level you get students going to schools of journalism. And at the fifth level you get students going into schools of education.

To the degree that the media recruits from schools of journalism, it is recruiting young men and women who don't think very well and who don't have the habit of thinking particularly.

Our Country and Our Culture, 1983