Have you ever seen a movie called The Front Page? It was made in the 1930's I think, one of the first talkies, based on a play writen about 4 years before the movie. In that movie they have journalists making up facts to fit the particular paper's agenda. So decades before Woodward and Bernstien journalists were "some sort of journalist."
The main difference is back then a major city had many more papers then today and so they had to fight each other which helped in diluting the particular agenda of a single organ.
Today, most Lamestreamers defer to the New York Times, which just is a situation that shouldn't be in a country with a free press.
Sure, but I'm saying today's journalists aren't being influenced by an old play/movie to do what they're doing (and have always done, if one looks into the history of journalism). I'm saying TODAY's journalists are all trying to be the next Woodward and Bernstein. I think the evidence is overwhelming.
Good point about the NYT influence on a free press. I think the Times' publication of the op-ed "A War We Can Win" is causing quite a few writers to tremble in fear, waiting for the Gray Lady to come up with its talking points on why journalists shouldn't take what it published all that seriously.