Unfortunately, most of the J-school grads I've encountered in my reporting days are clueless and thoroughly indoctrinated. From what I hear, the nation's journalism schools don't teach the fundamentals of reporting a story thoroughly and factually, but stress the importance of shaping public opinion Yes, I've had similar experience. While trying to hire a book editor for our publishing company, one candidate with masters in journalism from U FL abysmally flunked our spelling and grammar test. How did he get through J school? He told me that teachers only graded on "political correctness," not students' ability to write. The teachers are doing a horrible disservice to these students.
We had hundreds of applicants for the job. I ended up only looking at resumes from candidates over 50, as they might have had a decent education. The happy surprise was a 22-year-old Phi Bet from Michigan, who was born, I think, knowing his stuff.
The best reporters I've worked with had degrees in English (mine was in Spanish, what do I know?). We had a brand new journalism grad a few years ago who absolutely could not write a coherent sentence. He lasted a few months before being told he wasn't cut out for that line of work. At last report, he was a counter guy for a car rental company.