Boston University journalism professor Christopher Daly’s recent critique of a young journalist’s work incited a debate across blogs and industry forums about whether young reporters have what it takes to write front-page news for a national newspaper.

Daly wrote a Dec. 10 response piece to the front-page Washington Post story debunking rumors associated with Barack Obama’s Muslim ties. Daly’s blog fueled a debate when he posed the question, “Since when does the Post assign 27-year-olds to write Page 1 presidential campaign pieces?”

College of Communication journalism lecturer Jonathan Feit, who started work at BU when he was 24, responded to Daly’s blog with a blog post of his own.

“I take pleasure in nothing more than dispelling — scratch that, obliterating, napalming even — the moronic myth that age has anything whatsoever to do with ability,” Feit said in his Dec. 13 post.

Twenty-six-year-old Feit continued his argument by giving examples of young, successful men and women in various media industries. Feit said in an interview he is the youngest member of the American Society of Magazine Editors.

“Perhaps Professor Daly would like this multiplicity of erudite, educated, eloquent and just plain whiz-bang, in-the-know voices to shut up until they (we) are older,” he continued in the post.

Feit clarified his disagreement with Daly, stating that while the professor gave everybody a “dose of reality,” he should not have said it the way he did because of his position as a journalism educator.

“You cannot promote that perspective,” Feit said. “He’s supposed to teach you how to get around [age discrimination]. You can’t help how old you are; you can only help how good you are when you get there.”

Journalism professor Lou Ureneck, chairman of the BU journalism department, defended Daly, saying students can find “no better friend and advocate.”

“He has a reputation for being an outstanding mentor,” Ureneck said. “He is a very committed person and a tremendous advocate for students.”

There is no set time period for gaining the proper amount of journalistic experience, he said.

“Journalism is so serendipitous,” Ureneck said. “If you happen to be in the right place when news breaks out, then you could get that front-page story.”

Daly said in an email that his previous statements had been meant to question how a newspaper could print and amplify damaging rumors about a political candidate.

“It’s hard to get experience [on political campaigns], because they happen only every four years,” he said. “So it seemed to me very unlikely that someone that age could have a very long track record.”

Daly said he thinks BU’s journalism department adequately prepares its students to enter today’s media world.

“[News organizations] now expect the ‘new kid’ to arrive on the first day with a lot more skills than ever before,” he said. “We try to encourage curiosity, skepticism, and carefulness — all key qualities in successful journalists.”