Mainstream Media Dying Because It No Longer Does Its Job

Michael Gerson tells us that we'll miss them when they're gone.

But a visit to the Newseum is a reminder that what is passing is not only a business but also a profession -- the journalistic tradition of nonpartisan objectivity. Journalists, God knows, didn't always live up to that tradition. But they generally accepted it, and they felt shamed when their biases or inaccuracies were exposed. The profession had rules about facts and sources and editors who enforced standards. At its best, the profession of journalism has involved a spirit of public service and adventure -- reporting from a bomber during a raid in World War II, or exposing the suffering of Sudan or Appalachia, or rushing to the site of the World Trade Center moments after the buildings fell.

The mainstream media is failing precisely because it is no longer shamed when its biases and inaccuracies are exposed. And they are only exposed in the new media. Were it not for the new media, Dan Rather could have gone along making it up indefinitely and the New York Times could continue to bury news that embarasses its ideological fellow travelers.