McCarthy to lecture at QC

Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY) has announced that Sheryl McCarthy, a longtime columnist for Newsday, has joined their Journalism Program as a Distinguished Lecturer and will teach journalism courses, mentor students and host a weekly public affairs talk show on CUNY-TV this September.
“We’re thrilled to have Sheryl joining our journalism faculty this fall,” said Queens College Professor Gerry Solomon, Director of the Journalism Program. “(She) is a talented, richly experienced journalist, a gifted writer, and a warm, sensitive, and outgoing person, a great communicator and teacher. Our students will benefit enormously from her first-hand experience,” he continued.
A cum laude graduate of Mount Holyoke College, McCarthy holds a master’s degree in English and a law degree from Columbia University. She has been a reporter and education editor for the New York Daily News, a correspondent for ABC-TV News and a writer and columnist for Newsday and New York Newsday.
She has also hosted talk shows on public television channel WNET-TV/Channel 13 and the city’s former broadcast television station, WNYC-TV.
McCarthy has received the Meyer Berger Award from Columbia University, a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard, as well as winning awards from the Education Writers Association and the NYS Associated Press. She is currently a contributing columnist for Newsday and USA Today.
This fall McCarthy will teach “Critical Issues in Journalism.” The course will explore the kinds of ethical decisions journalists are faced with in their daily work, as well as what constitutes ethical behavior in any given situation.
“One of the things I hope to do is give more students greater exposure to accomplished working journalists, so they can learn what it’s like to work in the business and how journalists view their function in society,” McCarthy said.
The course will examine incidents such as the Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass scandals; the propriety of journalists going “undercover” on shows like Dateline’s’ “To Catch a Predator”; whether it’s permissible to use deception to land a story; the role of the press in wartime; and the importance of diversity in the newsroom.
The course will also look at the kinds of behavior the First Amendment does and does not protect.
In the spring, she will teach a “Critical Issues” course that will focus on the role of opinion-writers and how to write well-reasoned columns supported by facts.
“These issues are fascinating and very topical,” McCarthy said. “I encourage students to sign up for these courses.”