If you want to see something amazing about journalism visit the LBJ library in Austin, TX.
They have a room there that is a replica of the oval office at the time.
What is most stunning about it is the three television sets on the right side of the room—one for ABC, one for CBS, one for NBC.
It was obvious that LBJ was fanatical about controlling/monitoring what was said on those three networks.
He understand that journalism was “not” a sacred trust. It was a powerful propaganda platform that could make or break him.
Fortunately those days are gone, and the plutocrats who own and run the major media are losing their power.
“Journalism” is as “sacred” as the Aztec sacrifices of children to the Gods—and it belongs in the dustbin of history with them.
Control the information and you control the people. Information is a powerful social tool, see the Reformation and resistance to teaching the public to read, the totally universal application of controlled media worldwide with extreme examples in USSR and North Korea, Operation Mockingbird in the US. see too, CNN agreeing to be stifled in Iraq as a condition of being allowed to report from there. The press is a corrupt but useful institution.
-- He understand that journalism was "not" a sacred trust. It was a powerful propaganda platform that could make or break him. --
Except not "was." It still is.
The reason that "trustworthy" is claimed, and made to appear to have teeth by firing the likes of Rather, is that the power to control is lost when the audience loses trust.
I think society is stronger when the people are forced to engage their own minds, and to not trust the political institutions like the government and the press. The press will ALWAYS be political. it never was objective, and it is not supposed to be objective. The whole construct of "we have a sacred duty to you" is a means of getting power over the gullible.