The American Revolution and Declaration of Independence, it has often been argued, were fueled by the most radical of all American political ideas.

You can't serve the public good without the truth as a bottom line.

The pressure to compete, the fear somebody else will make the splash first, creates a frenzied environment in which a blizzard of information is presented and serious questions may not be raised.

Even at the end of a presidential election campaign, we have no way to know what Mitt Romney really believes.

For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norms, even our cultural ideal.

I think all good reporting is the same thing - the best attainable version of the truth.

In the John Paul II days, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had the advantage of staying in his cupboard - the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - exchanging views only with the Pope, and speaking publicly only through carefully written missives on doctrinal issues.