Respectable newspeople on the Sunday morning talk shows carefully distanced themselves from Armstrong Williams, the African-American "journalist" who was paid real money by the Bush Administration for saying nice things about its policies. There was a need, they said on both "Meet the Press" and "Face the Nation," to retain credibility with the public.
I don't believe network TV but I guess credibility disappears gradually; many Americans still credit what passes for journalism there.
Unfortunately, our society extols faith and undervalues skepticism. Unless we produce more doubting Thomases, quickly, we will pay the price.
As so many trusting young American soldiers have already done in Iraq.