Colgate graduates are well prepared to enter an increasingly media-centric world because of the formidable liberal arts education they just completed and the mentorship of alumni already playing key roles in this digital age.
That was one of the messages delivered – in person and through a live webcast – at the university’s 190th commencement exercises by Howard Fineman ’70, editorial director of the Huffington Post Media Group.
Fineman urged the 698 graduates of the Class of 2011 to navigate the nonstop “mega-swarm” of content available through multiple technologies by becoming editors and reporters in their own right.
“If war is too important to be left to the generals, then the news business is too sprawling and chaotic to be left just to people who call themselves journalists,” said Fineman. “You have the minds and means to help journalism thrive, and to see that American democracy survives along with it.”
Here is a sampling of Fineman’s Journalism 101:
“Never assume. The French philosopher Jacques Ellul noted that the real danger is not the flat-out lie, but the half-truth, the twisted truth, the truth taken out of context. The best antidote to propaganda is skepticism.
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“Never rely on one source, be it a person, a newspaper, website, tweet, or a government official. Decide, as the late David Foster Wallace said, not how to think, but what to notice. Choosing what to notice is a journalistic decision. It is also a moral one.
“Treasure verifiable facts. The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who spoke at a Colgate commencement in 1977, had a famous dictum. ‘Everyone is entitled to his own opinion,’ he said, ‘but not to his own facts.’ A photoshopped picture is not a fact, neither is half a quote.”
Fineman also shared advice he gathered, in true journalistic fashion, from fellow alumni in the media, film, and television industries.
He cited Jeff Fager ’77, chairman of CBS News; Ken Schanzer ’66, president of NBC Sports; Gloria Borger ’74, of CNN; Kevin Heffernan ’90, of Broken Lizard; and Chase Carey ’76, president of News Corp, who said: “Always pursue your goals with passion and energy. And if things get really tough, call a Colgate friend for a beer.”
President Jeffrey Herbst, speaking at his first Colgate commencement, noted the incredible changes the seniors witnessed during their four years on campus and the turbulent world they now enter as graduates.
He told the seniors not to be afraid of failure and to be flexible and adaptive.
“It is no surprise to me that one of the most common mantras in Silicon Valley — the heart of innovation in this country and the area where people are, not coincidentally, the most optimistic about the turbulent future — is ‘fail faster.’
“For your generation, the question of the next few years will not only be if you reasonably succeeded at what you attempted but also if you failed enough. Because if you did not fail, you probably did not set your sights high enough.
“Go into the world with your eyes wide open, yes, but also with your mind open. There are great days ahead for you.”