Good Journalism? (Rant)

[mishalak]

How do journalists manage to say with straight faces that uncritically relaying "leaks" on behalf of institutions is critical to a free press acting as society's watchdog upon those same institutions? Do they honestly believe that it is the same thing to parrot the information given to them as part of unofficial policy of an organization as it is to receive information from whistleblowers wanting to call attention to unethical or illegal behavior on the part of an organization that person is a part of? And what of if that very act of conveying the information is not only a crime but also morally wrong? It is one thing to illegally publish the classified the Pentagon Papers to show that the government is lying about a war situation to the public and quite another to be used as a tool of petty revenge/discrediting which is apparently the case with the CIA agent leak situation which prompted this rant. Yet reporters can't seem to see the difference and are intent upon creating a new right, reporter source confidentiality, that will stand in all cases no matter unlike those much more limited privileges that involve mere doctors or lawyers. Is it any wonder that the public has little respect for them?