People love to demonize journalism, but who else will hold the powerful like Google to account? The meme of demonization comes from the powerful - 'enemy of the people', etc.

> journalists will happily take any comment, from any employee, from any context, and make it Crucial Evidence(TM) of impropriety...

I think that's more a problem of social media, where it seems true more often than not, and not professional media, which actually reviews evidence, corroborates, etc., and are subject to expensive lawsuits if they fail (e.g., Fox News has paid out something like a billion dollars over smearing the voting machine manufacturers).

It depends what you call 'professional', but I mean high-quality sources like NY Times, CBS News, etc. (Yes, you can find where they've been accused of failing, which of course will happen, and where they've actually failed - there's nothing perfect under the sun).

The targets of professional journalists' investigations will lie their asses off - until they are caught, and then they switch to a fall-back lie. They also use the tactic of attacking the messenger. They aren't under oath or required to answer questions.

I don't think that is true. I'm sure they are more concerned about legal consequences than PR, even if both are important.

The press comes in for a lot of hate from just about everybody. They must be doing something right.

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