Once a year, the advisory board of Notre Dame's John W. Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics and Democracy (composed entirely of alumni) get together to tell the undergraduates who are pursuing a five-course journalism minor (the school does not offer a major in journalism) that things are great. The four adjunct professors and program director that teach to the journalism minor are five men, including a retired editor of the Boston Globe and Don Wyciff, the former public editor of the Chicago Tribune who is now Notre Dame's PR person. Notre Dame costs $49,030 a year—but like many schools, meets 100% of need of admitted students. Just don't look through their recommended loans, which come at terms up to "Prime + 5.99%"! So this year, the advisory panel convened to talk to students about the job prospects for journalists (including the young journalists present who very well may have been accumulating tens of thousands of dollars of high-interest debt!) and they expressed great enthusiasm for the health of this industry!

There was much talk about how young journalists can write "150 word" stories for cellphones and how everything is digital now (though there's no such course at the school—they do have one "Broadcast Journalism" course, however). Here's how they described this Ever-Changing World of Journalism:

Chief Environmental correspondent for NBC News Anne Thompson said the news business goes in cycles and has already changed since she first entered the business. When she first started, Thompson said she worked with a crew and collaborated with them as a team. Now, she works almost as a "one-man band," recently traveling to the Amazon with only a producer, Thompson said.

"I grew up in an era of specialized journalism," she said, "Now you are expected to do everything."

She said the next generation of journalists would be part of the "figuring it out" process of the changing landscape of journalism.

"You should be excited," Thompson said.

Well, maybe you should be excited! Excited because there isn't a job worth having in the industry. Between the hiring freezes, the layoffs and the extended ladder of internships (college graduates spend half their 20s in internships now!), there actually are not jobs.

Except, maybe, online?

So then the panelists all went on to trash the untrustworthy blogs! This is a sad joke.

But panelists noted the importance of distinguishing true and objective news from online blogs and the un-checked flow of information on the Internet.

Now that is a terrible sentence, by whichever young journalist wrote that. Distinguish true and objective news that comes from the blogs? Or distinguish true news from the blogs in the swamp of the Internet? I'm thinking they meant the latter, because....

"I think the American public deserves one clean shot at the facts before people start commenting on it," Dan LeDuc, a Metro editor for the Washington Post, said.

Despite changing mediums, journalism is still fundamentally searching for the truth, and those who perform the task well will always be able to find employment, Thompson said.

"If you can write well and gather news, you will always have a job," she said.

So that is a lie, which is a shame, because Anne Thompson is a very admirable person and an excellent reporter. Here, let someone tell you the truth: As long as you can write well and gather news, kids, you will always have a blog.

Also Dan LeDuc (who is probably a lovely, talented person too!) should probably be fired for this noble sentiment expressed as an attack on the only subset of the industry that will actually hire the students of Notre Dame. In fact, the Washington Post shouldn't be talking about this at all. Their incredibly well-paid and fabled internship program, which provides excellent experience, not only shamefully only accepts enrolled college students, it also doesn't extend to their burgeoning online department. Their online interns are not even paid.