Journalists occupy an alternate moral universe

By Aussiegirl

Ralph Peters, writing in today's New York Post, finally lays out the truth -- journalism is broke -- and Woodward and Bernstein broke it. Ever since those heady days of Watergate, every journalist sees himself as some self-appointed jihadist bent on achieving lasting glory through one of two holy goals -- either undermining a war effort that the country is engaged in (especially if that war is waged by a Republican president), and/or bringing down a Republican president.

In the persuance of these goals, and armed with the holy armour of "journalistic objectivity" (which usually means seeing the enemy's point of view), they feel free to break the laws of common decency, morality, and even engage in outright treasonous behavior when they reveal state secrets which endanger the very safety of the country and its troops.

Is it just me? I think it was wrong of Woodward to withhold information in a criminal proceeding, yet when it came out that Bob Woodward knew all along that Scooter Libby was not the first person to have revealed Valerie Plame's name (if that is indeed what he did - he claims, after all, that it was reporters who revealed Plame's name to him), it seemed that the journalists were all upset because he had violated some sacred trust of journalism in that he did not tell his editor about this. No one seemed particularly concerned that he had knowingly withheld information in a criminal proceeding which would potentially destroy a man's career and even send him to prison, not to mention that he was obstructing justice.

What kind of warped morality or mentality is that? After all, it used to be only Hebrew National that proclaimed that they "answered to an even higher authority". Too bad Bob Woodward's "higher authority" is not heaven -- but instead a realm to which journalists have elevated themselves -- a realm where they answer to no one but themselves -- and to the weird standards of their broken profession.

New York Post Online Edition: postopinion

A SPECTER is haunting journalism: the specter of Watergate.
Three decades ago, two young reporters became the story and crippled American journalism.

Budding yuppies who avoided inconvenient service to the state needed heroes they could call their own. And they got them.

Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman played Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on-screen. It was as if Mike Bloomberg was portrayed by Brad Pitt. Overnight, journalism became an upwardly mobile profession — and our country is much the worse for it.

In place of the old healthy skepticism, we have arrogant cynicism. The highest echelons of the media and government became preserves for America's most-privileged. An Ivy League degree was the ticket to a reporting job on a major daily. And incest produced the usual ugly results.

"Mainstream" newspapers lost touch with American workers because the new breed of journalists didn't know any workers.

After journalists became matinee idols, every bright young reporter had a new career goal. Forget honest, get-at-the-facts reporting. Henceforth the crowning ambition in the field was to bring down a president — especially one who wasn't "our kind." Failing that, turning the tide of a foreign conflict against Washington would do.

"Serious" journalists became scandal-mongers in drag.

The other product of the Woodward-Bernstein cult was the rise of the self-adoring conviction that journalists were above patriotism, the law and common decency. Today's Joe McCarthys aren't on Capitol Hill — they're in the newsroom. In lieu of Edward R. Murrow, we have Hedda Hopper masquerading as Joan of Arc.