Well, journalism is different from other departments.
You are teaching a craft more than a load of theory (yeah, there is theory, but it is more do-it based than knowledge-baed).
Thus, life experience counts for a lot.
In other departments, usually knowledge is the primary goal. You can't substitute life experience there.
I think that the University of Colorado used his being an Indian activist as the equivalent of years of experience. An activist in the eyes of a lot of academics is worth far more than scholarship especially if it's left wing activism. Of course it's looking more and more like not only was his claim to be an American-Indian bogus but so was a lot of the "experience" he claimed to have.