Academia: Spinning and Tearing its Hair Out. What's New?

After reading a few articles on the 'hospital method' of teaching Journalism...
 < http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/08/do-journalism-schools-really-need-to-be-teaching-hospitals/ >
 < http://www.knightfoundation.org/press-room/other/open-letter-americas-university-presidents/ >

I'm at a loss. I can see the academicians at Harvard spinning in their chairs and tearing their hair out trying to come up with a way to save Journalism. Unfortunately, this isn't it. Very few new ideas were actually proposed by the Knight Foundation. The core of their proposal seems to be having students get real-world experience by shadowing Journalists in the newsroom. Great. Good Fine. That's stellar but it's called an internship. What separates it from an internship is the fact that not just one outgoing student would be selected from many to be professionally mentored. Instead, the whole flock of them would be allowed to mosey on through the curriculum -- like sheep.

I believe this method of Journalist-rearing would be problematic, though not for any of the reasons presented by the spinning academics on Neimen World (doesn't account for change, yadayada). Ryfe and Mensing were quoted as saying that the true problem with the 'Sacred Heart Method' of education, besides the fact that it's cited to the sitcom Scrubs, is that by giving the students exposure to the dying industry they will be prevented from thinking any differently to their predecessors.

This is 1/2 the actual problem. What educators and future journalists must truly be cautious of is the 'No Child Left Behind Effect' (There, now I've coined a term too). Journalism is being forced to adapt to the digital age and, thus far, doing a right shitty job. Diversity of thought and innovative business plans must be dreamed up by the future Journalists of America, or else, like anything in this dog-eat-dog world which remains stagnant amongst tumult; journalism itself will die.

Okay, it won't die. But it probably will be bought out by corporate interests with the intent of swaying consumer opinion (Prove me wrong, Bezos, Henry, etc).

Journalism needs a little cold-war-era technologies race to get back on its feet. Shepherding everyone and anyone through the program won't help. If anything it will be counter-productive, as such an environment does not foster competition, creativity and innovation.

In essence, we must let the scramble for internships continue. This way, the more capable students will reveal themselves early, and a competitive spirit can be cultivated in future American journalists. Here lies the fundamental difference between myself and the Sacred Heart Method: where they wish to place cushions beneath Journalism's inevitable decline, I say let us fight it out.