[DeltAlum]

I hope you won't mind -- actually, I don't really care -- that I take personal offense to that.

I've worked in radio or TV since 1963 -- a substantial portion of that time directing newscasts. I am not one, but I have known hundreds, perhaps thousands of journalists, and your contention that all that media are simply out for "ratings" or subscribers is absurd. Painting an entire profession with the same brush is unfair and uninformed. It's easier to be a parrott, though -- to say (and maybe actually believe) that everything you hear or read is tainted.

It's a little like saying that everyone in our armed forces is like Lt. William Caley from the Vietnam era or the present men who are allegedly mistreating Iraqi captives as the "nude" photos being shown around the world the same.

Or that all politicians are like the Watergate Burglers or the Republican staffers who allegedly recently stole information from computers of Democrats and shared the information with other Republicans.

Or that all people from West Virginia are inbred hicks with no teeth who can't read or write and have stills in their backyards.

Few people notice the remarkable safety record of the airline industry until there is a serious accident. Nobody notices the solid performance of most journalists until one of them does something wrong or stupid.

There are certainly some exceptions, but the vast majority of journalists I know are hard working professionals who have high ethical standards. People who take to heart what they learn in J School about fairness and balanced coverage. The exceptions are mostly pretty rare in all but the most radical cases.

Next, I think that you should go back an take an American History or Government (Political Science) Course. I have a minor in the latter. As I alluded in an earlier post, one of the reasons that America's founders (we often call them Patriots), left their homes and migrated here was for things like Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Religion. That's why the First Amendment to our Constitution addressed those issues.

When you assert that government should spoon feed information to the media, and thus to the American public, you are saying that those reasons for our forefathers pilgramage, and the freedoms for which we have fought over the past 225 plus years are wrong.

Just like the doctrine of separation of powers in our government in which the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches balance each other so that no one can gain absolute control, and thus total power, so did the founders believe in a press that would sometimes be adversary to government. Investigative journalism is a force that helps keep government and business honest.

If you don't think that's true, take a look at how political parties use higly sophisticated propaganda techniques to try to use media against their opponents.

Out of curiousity, can you give me a documented case where an American journalist knowingly gave information which aided an enemy in battle? There may be one, but I can't think of it.

By the way, did I mention that at least one influential part of media, broadcasting, is regulated by the government itself? How long do you suppose that a broadcast facility would hold its (government granted) license if it were as scandalous as you allege?

Journalism is a business. Profit is a motive. But, in order to maintain that business, media cannot simply run roughshod over anything in its path. The American Public, which is for the most part fairly middle of the road to consertive would not stand for it. There is a huge difference between reporting a scandal in government or military and knowingly giving out information which would jeopardize the lives of other Americans -- military or not.

It is very fashionable to accuse the media of being liberal, or conservative or unfair in many ways. However a vast majority of Americans claim that most of their news comes from electronic media. What's wrong with that picture? People are either too dumb or too lazy to read papers or magazines. That's a tragedy because what really needs to happen is that we all should get our news from many sources -- and make up our mind about what is real and what isn't.

Blaming media for all of our ills is a total copout. Media is reactive to society and government. It doesn't set social standards and mores', it reflects them. It can strengthen them, but doesn't generally introduce them.

Finally, I would simply reiterate that one of the things that scares a dictator and/or his regime the most is a free and open press. The truth is something they simply can't deal with. Ask someone who has lived in a dictorship how important an open media is to them. Or, better yet, find someone who has grown up with a free press and then had to live with restrictions.