Howard Kurtz sums up the bad news for the news biz today and hits this familiar chime:
The indictment of Lewis “Scooter” Libby over his you-didn’t-get-this-from-me discussions with Tim Russert, Matt Cooper and Miller has dramatized the sagging reputation of reporters. Rather than digging out vital information, they are seen as conduits for political sniping and worse. The poster children for the press right now are Miller and Robert Novak, who has refused to discuss why he helped two senior administration officials in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
As Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times writes: “The Libby indictment shows that this administration has made monkeys of the Washington press corps by playing on its desire for access, for party chatter, for being on the inside looking out instead of the outside looking in.”
