In the movie Front Page (the old and the new), Journalists are portrayed quite accurately. A gaggle of hard-drinking bullshatters.
I have had some dealings with the press on the level Whether they were friendly or unfriendly to me I have never picked up the newspaper the next day and read an accurate story.
And when I try to tell them something about the democrats, They have absolutely preposterous reasons why they can’t publish it.
At a town meeting I told the reporter that the mayor was lying and that he had met with us privately and told us the exact opposite.
The reporter said “you know we can’t print that it would be hearsay!”
Hearsay! About a public official and a public issue. A legal concept which has NOTHING to do with the press. It is their job to report “hearsay”.