Noon Broadcast - Friday, June 6th

Good afternoon and happy Friday!

The Boston Globe is reporting today on a story that the Northeastern News first broke last month.

Northeastern University is declining to renew contracts for faculty members without advanced degrees in their field. The school seeks to improve their academic profile with these dismissals, but he move is being met with negative response from teachers and a student leaders.

The effort began under President Freeland in 2004, who aimed to tenure-track more professors as an attempt to bolster the status of Northeastern. 70% of NU's faculty are currently on tenure track. The tenure track requires the most advanced degree in the teacher's respective field.

Some faculty being faced with dismissal have been teaching at Northeastern for over 10 years.

Northeastern senior Michael DeRamo has this to say about the dismissals: "There's a lot of emphasis on practice here, and a lot of students are disappointed the school didn't take more into consideration than degrees. There's a lot of concern that this is all driven by the US News & World Report [college rankings]. It's like they are teaching to the test."

Journalism professor Nicholas Daniloff sharply criticized the school's handling of the contract status of longtime journalism instructors Gladys McKie and Lincoln McKie, who are in jeopardy of losing their jobs for not having master's degrees.

"I think this a shocking way to run a railroad," he said. "They handled it in a meat- ax fashion."


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Think Progress reports a very strange journalism tactic from Fox News. On this morning's Your World with Neil Cavuto, a link was made between Michael Moore's health care exposé SiCKO and global terrorism.

Online columnist Jerry Bowyer attacked the movie's positive portrayal of the health care in countries such as Britain and France. He argued that national health care systems are breeding grounds for terrorists because they are “bureaucratic.” “I think the terrorists have shown over and over again…they're very good at gaming the system with bureaucracies,” said Bowyer.

The headline underneath the broadcast was "National Healthcare: Breeding Ground For Terror?"

Fox News refuses to respond to this suggestion.


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We close today with a report of a pending lawsuit against Avril Lavigne.

According to the Huffington Post, Songwriters Tony Dunbar and James Gangwer are suing the pop songstress claiming her chart-topping "Girlfriend" is a direct rip on their song, "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," made famous by new-wave band the Rubinoos in 1979.

The songs are strikingly similar in meter, rhythm, and lyrics - both feature a "hey, hey, you, you" echoed opening in their refrains.

Lavigne's attorneys declined comment at this time - the first court date has been set for August 28 in Oakland, California.

The Rubinoos' "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" should not be confused with the 1976 Ramones song by the same title.