Why a Drone Journalism Educator Is Getting His Pilot’s License

Matt Waite has already enjoyed a varied career as an investigative journalist and author, as the principal developer behind PolitiFact, and, most recently, as an educator. He’ll soon add one more title to his CV: pilot.   Waite, a journalism professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has been working toward his light-aircraft pilot’s license all summer—not because of any particular ambition for flying, but because it’s the only way he can revive UNL’s Drone Journalism Lab, which he founded in 2011, only to see it grounded two years later by the Federal Aviation Administration.