From WNYKRZOZE

From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On The Media.

I'm Bob Carfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone.

Former Vice President Al Gore taught his first class at Columbia University Journalism School this week,

but the most important lesson for his students may have been what transpired the following day.

And that lesson is, don't provoke the press.

Columbia's journalistic chieftains really should have known better. First, they call a press

conference, then they call it off. Then they say the lecturer is off the record, then on the record,

then off the record. Then they say it was their decision, then they say it was Gores, and then they

say it wasn't.

At Weeks End, Colombia capitulated and took the gag order off once and for all.

What made it all so much worse, it occurred at the nation's most prestigious journalism school,

and most of the working press would never admit to setting foot in such a place,

the general opinion being that J-School

is for pampered little wimps.

The media were not amused.

The New York Times said the students learned three key points.

One, if a newsworthy person says anything of interest in class, you can't write about it.

Two, you can't talk about it either.

And three, plenty of reporters are willing to pay you to break lessons one and two.

The Boston Globe said it enabled students to learn firsthand, the meanings of off the record,

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