J-School Chief Criticizes Story That Reported Loss of Accreditation

By: Joe Strupp The head of Arizona State University's journalism school is criticizing a story by the Associated Press that reported the school had lost its accreditation.

Stephen Doig, interim director of ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, told E&P that the AP story, which circulated Monday, wrongly reported the loss of accreditation. In truth, he said, the school received only an initial review from a team at the Crediting Council for Journalism and Mass Communications, which provides such accreditation for journalism schools.

While the review found fault with some areas of the school's operations, it did not remove its accreditation.

"In reality, nothing has happened," Doig argued. "Their report will go to the full council in the spring and they will decide if the accreditation should remain."

AP editors at the news organization's Phoenix bureau, where the story originated, declined to comment. AP spokesman Jack Stokes said two corrections were made since the original story, including one that clarified that the review had not removed the accreditation.

The story stemmed from an October review of the Cronkite School's programs and policies by a team from the Crediting Council that spent four days on campus, Doig said. The team reviewed 12 criteria and found that the school was in non-compliance in two of the 12: diversity and administration.

On Monday, the East Valley Tribune of nearby Tempe, Ariz., ran a story on the report that said the school had come "under fire from a team of accreditors for lack of leadership, failing to promote women and ignoring diversity issues in class and in the curriculum." But the story did not say it had lost accreditation, and pointed out the areas that reviewers had praised, such as the faculty and facilities.

The Tribune story also reported that the accreditation would be decided in 2005 by the council's full panel. Tribune reporter Jason Emerson, who wrote the story, did not return calls seeking comment.

AP circulated a story on Monday, which Stokes confirmed had been based on the Tribune report, which stated the ASU journalism school had lost accreditation. Although AP distributed the correction on its wires late Monday, several news outlets -- including two Phoenix television station Web sites -- still had the incorrect AP story as of Wednesday afternoon.

"It aggravates me," Doig said about the AP version. "They did what AP does, put up a story from (an AP ) member."