Subject: Re: Professional exclusions From: curtmonash@monash.com (Curt A. Monash) Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 00:59:12 -0400

S. Finer wrote, in a gratifyingly prompt reply:

>but the profession itself could self-certify.....

By what standards?  Quality of work?  Impossible for anybody to form a
reasonable judgment, except your closest direct competitors; they're the
only other journalists who know enough about the subject matter.

Training/experience?  Maybe, but that leads to the next question ...

To what end?  What harm is done to the customers/public if an inept
journalist pursues the trade? Open debate deals with that, at least in
theory, and usually in practice.  (And I think the Net DOES have a lot to
offer in increasing the opportunities for non-mainstream opinions to be
heard.)  I have trouble coming up with a real-world problem that real-world
licensing would solve.  Hell, I have some trouble coming up with a
theoretical, hypothetical scenario, although I guess THAT is doable.

[I guess I could get sort of ad hominem here, and discuss the relationship
between certification and concepts like credibility -- specifically, its
relationship to signing one's real name on a mailing list -- but that would
be petty, so I won't.]






Curt A. Monash, Ph.D.
President, Monash Information Services
Editor and Publisher, Monash Software Letter

Please use dual email addresses:  curtmonash@monash.com and curtmonash@aol.com
http://www.monash.com
212-315-3120  fax:  212-399-3268
61 West 62nd Street, NYC, NY 10023


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