Entry 17:

David,

The fact that plenty of journalists make plenty of stupid pronouncements may explain our current ranking with the general public; but it certainly doesn't diminish the importance of what the good ones continue to do. Of course it's not our job to make the rules, but if we all stopped bothering to chase after our public officials, we would be in a much worse mess than the one we already find ourselves in.

I could make as long a list as anyone of "journalists" I would  like to banish from television; Chris Matthews would be at the very top of that list. On the other hand, every time I read anything by Frank Clines, Molly Ivins, Joan Didion, David Dunlap, Bill Grieder, Rob Boynton, Paul Goldberger, or Renata Adler (who managed to scoop the entire Washington press corps on the real significance of the Starr report), I know that ours is still a profession very much worth practicing.

Yours,
Charles