Press - Unbiased - Really

As I perused the news today I noticed and article discussing Bob Woodward the 'old sage' of investigative reporting and of Watergate fame. In the article it was reported that according to Mr. Woodward the Valerie Plame case is little more than gossip and he has referred to the case as being laughable and to Mr. Fitzgerald's behavior as "disgraceful". It was reported that he has made these statement and claims on national television and in interviews with other media organizations. I must say that I find it astonishing that a respected reporter and journalist could and would first violate one of the primary tenets of the profession by discussing the issue in the media without revealing his own direct knowledge of and involvement in the case, secondly keep that information from his editors to the detriment of his paper and its readers and third that he could show such disdain for the law and the public officials charged with enforcing those laws. I believe that this is just another example of how our news media is devolving from an independent investigative and reporting entity to an instrument of corporations, special interest and political parties. How many more mainstream media "journalists" are going to go over to the dark side? Is this not just another symptom of the cancer of corporatism that is consuming our press along with our government? I have to ask myself these questions when faced with what seems to be a never ending stream of mainstream 'liberal' media journalists and supposed journalists continue to involve themselves in borderline if not outright violations of professional ethics and partisan politics directly and indirectly and when male escorts are allowed to receive White House press credentials and receive payments from federal agencies for positive reporting on government programs and policies. I grow extremely skeptical when in the span of a few weeks two cornerstones of the American print media have reporters whose veracity and conduct is questioned in such a way. I personally believe the American people deserve better. It would appear to me that these news organizations have either grown lacks in the oversight of their journalists or the journalists are doing precisely what their editors want and that the editors are yielding to corporate and administration pressures. Either way the results are the same and that is a great disservice to the public. A free and independent and honest press is one of the essentials of a democracy and in fact I do not believe a democracy can survive without it. We, the American public, must demand independent and absolutely unbiased and honest reporting from all media sources public and private. As for Mr. Woodward I can only say that I am sorely disappointed and I liked you better before you were an administration hack Bob.

Those are The Sergeant Majors thoughts on that.