Don't commit libel. Don't be partisan on the air and so on. Some of it can be found by articulating the idealism of our craft. But this is the real world now. I think the opposite is true.
Practicality is fine in college.
But in the real world, only ideals will see us through. Well, for one thing it's only reasonable to expect that journalism, good journalism, will break your heart, not once but several times. When that happens you need to have a fairly secure idea about why you do what you do, why it matters to you and others. In other words, in a sustainable professional life, idealism seems to me no less than a practical necessity. Public Radio and NPR need that practical necessity to help us through the thickets of ratings, infotainment and mergers.