Yep, thanks backhoe for the links and the post.
I've been following this, too.
OPINION: Maybe I'm just grouchy, but I think the TOMs should be fired.
They not only have fallen down on the job; they don't even want
to do the job.
If you're "grouchy," you aren't the only one-- the "media" has become an incestuous, noisy echo-chamber... combined with the worst features of push-polling and focus groups.
I'm old enough to remember when most reporters didn't have "journalism" degrees- in fact, some never even went to college. They learned how to write via on the job training, starting as copyboys or stringers-- and they were better investigators for it.
They used to work a beat, like a street cop, and saw real life up close and personal.
Nowadays, they graduate from high school, go to college, and get a job with a big corporation-- much like a hothouse plant, they don't have to see much of reality if they don't care to.
They write, and report, mainly for themselves, and to gain accolades from their peers.
The old "Five W's" of reporting got jettisoned a long time ago.
The New Media- a combination of forums like this one, blogs, and good old talk radio- it eating their lunch, and few of them even realize it, beyond a few snarky articles that reveal their backwardness and ignorance more than anything else.