Journalists Schmernalists!

[salinen]

There is a weird fucked up mentality that says journalists are sacred and should have special rights. Where the hell did that come from? As if journalists are without fault or sin or unwilling to be bribed or lie. Insane. It would be wonderful if there were robot writers incapable of error or prostitution.

Just remember, O'reilly, Beck, Miller, Coulter, et al. consider themselves journalists. Journalists have the unique distinction of having graduated from a school of journalism! Big fucking deal. Doctors take a Hippocratic oath. Most Journalists piss on the truth.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Journalism is clearly an odd duck

There are no certifications or effective professional standards. Anyone with a website or blog can claim journalist status. For every highly held name there are three that are muckrakers of the highest order. Hearst and Pegler come to mind.

[gratuitous]

2. Well, there's that free speech/free press thing

And journalists have been conferred some special professional rights to protect sources and such. However, the popular, big-money media is no longer the ink-stained wretch of yore, and is more likely to be working with corrupt folks in government than to do anything to betray them. You can tell who's hand-in-glove by watching things like Wikileaks. Who's focused on Assange and his alleged misdeeds, and who is actually looking through what's been published?

The folks you mention in your second paragraph enjoy a very fluid status. They get to be "journalists" when they are very earnest and want to be taken seriously. But when their bias becomes too naked, then they revert to their back-up status as "commentator," folks who are supposed to take a position. And when they flat-out lie or their cutesy little act offends even some of their supporters, then they morph into "entertainers" who aren't really meant to be taken seriously alongside the likes of Williams, Couric or Sawyer, and hey, lighten up folks!

[EFerrari]

3. It comes from the constitution. It's one of the only professions

named in it, iirc:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

[jtown1123]

4. Journalists used to be a huge force for good and a watchdog on corporations & gov't

officials. Now, sadly things have changed dramatically for the worst. No longer do they "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," instead, they make the comfortable even more comfortable.