Letters to the Editor
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L.W.M. and sysprog are correct - The "honorable journalist" was a brief aberration of the '50's
The notion that journalists as a class are honorable professionals guarding the principles of our democracy and our common good was a brief aberration of the 1950's and early 1960's, borne I believe of the gravity of the issues of the Great War --- the Holicost, the Bomb, America's vital role in how things turned out, for good or for bad, in both areas.
The remaining millennia-old history of journalism is pretty yellow.
This is what adds huge relevance to the Founding Fathers' view of the Press, and the modern phenomenon of centralized industrial media ownership.
As I cite in an article I link to in my sign-off (and those of you who have noticed my recent comments have grown weary of the repetition) the Founders valued the multiplicity of voices among a diverse and independent press, not some misguided expectation of integrity, when they cited the vital role of the Press in our democracy.
Modern technology has allowed corporations to grow huge, press content to become objects of profitability free of civic interest among shareholders, opinion to become homogenized, and that vital diversity of opinion the Founders valued so much to erode greatly.