Self delusion

This is how a Washington Post journalist sees the decline of newspapers.

The cutback craze might be good for Wall Street and publishers' bottom lines, but even people outside newsrooms are beginning to fret that it's not very good for democracy.

Which leads me to provide the media with some balance.

a Reporting one side of a war is not good for democracy.
a Slandering public figures to vent ideological anger is not good for democracy.
a Labeling terrorists in Iraq as "insurgents" is not good for democracy.
a Labeling terrorists in Columbia as "rebels" is not good for democracy.
a Labeling Yassir Arafat, a known terrorist, a "romantic revolutionary" is not good for democracy.
a Hiring journalists out of college who have no living experience is not good for democracy.
a Creating fraudulent circulation figures for newspapers is not good for democracy.
a Refusing to investigate the suspect service record of a presidential candidate one favors is not good for democracy.
a Underreporting corruption in major cities is not good for democracy.
a Inflating fear and anxiety to hype a solution the media favors is not good for democracy.
a Refusing to acknowledge any other viewpoint but their own on their editorial pages is not good for democracy.
a Running anti-war campaigns on your pages in the guise of newsgathering is not good for democracy.
a Tolerating the bias of journalists because you share that bias is not good for democracy.
a Hiring them for that same reason is not good for democracy.
a Creating a newsroom atmosphere where favorite journalists are allowed to write fraudulent copy until caught is not good for democracy.
a Smearing anyone on your pages with whom you disagree is not good for democracy.
a Daily flashbacks to Vietnam and comparing every war to that one is not good for democracy.
a Demeaning your readers by ignoring their complaints is not good for democracy.
a Hiring punk writers to slap the military in wartime is not good for democracy.
a Having a quota system in newsrooms in order to repress individual thought is not good for democracy.
a Pretending that newspapers actually ever covered local politics is not good for democracy.
a Insisting newspapers aren't mostly Liberal in defiance of demonstrable proof is not good for democracy.
a Pretending that newspapers serve anything but their own interests is not good for democracy.
a Promoting an agenda in defiance of reality, public antipathy, human decency, and historical truth is not good for democracy.
a Claiming it's all Wall Street's fault is not good for democracy.
a Lying to yourself and your readers is not good for democracy.
a Self-delusion is not good for democracy.

And thinking that this is a justification for newspapers is how self-interest and self-delusion leads to incoherence.

"Serious journalism is labor-intensive and time-consuming and therefore requires large amounts of money and health benefits and pensions," wrote longtime journalist Sydney H. Schanberg in the Village Voice in December. "The blogosphere has plenty of time, but as yet none of those other items."

Maybe not, Sydney, but we have something you don't have. We have a profound respect for truth.