Rutland Herald

MOATS: "Part of what has soured people on the media in recent years has been the exploitive showmanship of television. There is a difference between what we need to know and the news that feeds our appetite for the bizarre. What we need to know includes what is happening in places like Iraq or the back rooms of Washington. We need to know it so that powerful people don''t get away with lying to us and messing up our world.
. . .
"Fines growing out of the new hysteria about what is called indecency have made the big media corporations nervous. Now reporters for The New York Times and other outlets have been threatened with jail for refusing to name sources. The message is: Watch yourself because we''re playing hardball.
. . .
"The press in the United States is still independent, of course, but that doesn''t prevent the government from trying to instill fear. All of the histrionics and showmanship of TV throw a shadow over the enterprise. But in the next few years, I think the news business will play a crucial role in shining the light on some troubling stories.

"And I still think it''s a heroic role."

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