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Protecting, rather than exposing, the secrets of the powerful is the fuel of American journalism. That's how they maintain their access to and good relations with those in power.
The above gets at it perfectly, Mr. Greenwald. The "free" press in this country is as entrenched an institution as any other. They're insiders and courtiers, committed to their privileges and perks granted them as insiders -- which reduces them to the role of propagandists, able to quickly get information out from the top downward.
Anymore, I think the only way real American journalism is going to occur is through amateur citizen journalists who're more dedicated to holding the powerful to account and finding the truth than to preserving their position of privilege, because they simply won't have any position of privilege, period. The Bush Years should once and for all demonstrates the complicity of the mainstream media in this arrangement, and that they are a spent force.
