TigerHawk

TigerHawk has some proposals for ethics reform for journalists. But, first, the need: From TigerHawk:

I am appalled that the press has gone ahead and published stories that palpably undermine our security in time of national peril over the specific request of the President of the United States. Yes, it is their lawful right to do so, but it is, frankly, disgusting that they have exercised that right. That the leak came through the same newspapers that thought that the outing of Valerie Plame was the worst affront to national security since Aldrich Ames exposes their political agenda in stark relief.

You can't put it any more succinctly than that. As for the proposal for reform, all are very good. But, they only beggar the question: why would the media want to reform? They don't.

The MSM, like Mainstream Television (MSTv,) don't really make money from subscribers. They make a profit from advertising, which makes their reputation moot to the discussion. What do they care? The advertisers are in the business of selling advertising to clients. There is no connection between readers and advertisers except in really egregious situations when viewers and readers have gotten up in arms on a single issue/program/editorial/story etc. And there is no compelling reason for newspapers to want to reform.

Newspapers are about power. For over forty years they have dominated the Democrat party, driving it ever Leftward, so much so that mainstream Democrats don't exist. Any that protested the left lurch have left the party years ago. Media campaigns against the death penalty, the promotion of gay "rights", and their anti-war biases have offended mainstream Democrats and effectively eliminated grassroots Americans from the scene.

They aren't going to reform. Like the old Communist party, it was never about belief or the desire to do anything but grab power and keep it. Reform was never an option in the Soviet Union. It isn't one with newspapers.