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Glenn, your media analysis is very valuable, but you tend to not to recognize that reporters are not independent actors, but employees of large commercial enterprises. The issue is not so much the individual ethics of reporters or journalistic culture, but the practices and policies of the companies they work for.
Reporters do not have tenure and they do not enjoy academic freedom. They, like any employee at any company, are paid to carry out the strategies and mission that are established by top management.
It is not that individual reporters are lazy and would do a better job if they weren't so lazy. Rather their lack of skepticism and follow through is there because it is rewarded. People who might be too independent and critical do not get hired in the first place, but if they are, they are quickly shown that such behavior is not acceptable: their stories are not published, or only in the back pages; they are given poor assignments, etc.
When a prominent hack like John Solomon given top billing at the WaPo, it is clear that the problem is organizational, not individual. Hiring Solomon also sends a clear message to every other reporter at the company.
There is no essential difference among Fox, the NY Times or the WaPo. They are all large commercial enterprises that promote their self interest. They just interpret their self interest somewhat differently.
