Re: Journalism
I think the root cause of American's disillusionment with the press is not Jayson Blair and his ilk. Those who have brought true shame to the profession in recent years don't bother me that much. Every institution has their Jayson Blairs; the fact that there are corrupt police or lying journalists or child-abusing priests does not mean that the police, newspapers and the Catholic Church should be abolished or looked down upon. It only means that when a crime is made known the institution has a responsibility to correct and admit it. (And blogs certainly help journalists with that - St. Blog's own Christopher Blosser recently shed light with an excellent post on Pope Benedict's history that resulted in an admission of error from the writer for the The American Spectator.)
What does bother me is the seemingly intentional bias one encounters in newspapers like the Dispatch. Like not having a home-grown conservative on the Dispatch editorial page. Like having a regular guest political columnist who is odious on the life issues (Professor Oldenquist of OSU) without a contra voice. And like a recent Sunday front page article on gay marriage that was unintentionally hilarious for the way it framed the issue.
No doubt a certain amount of bias is unavoidable because we all come with all our viewpoints. But it's the lack of effort to overcome bias that makes people think less of journalists. "Coloring the News" by William McGowan and Bernard Goldberg's books are very persuasive on this point.
Journalists have a remarkably difficult job because fairness requires enormous discipline, and many writers seem to be long on passion but short on discipline.
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