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

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.

The greatest felony in the news business today is to be behind, or to miss a big story. So speed and quantity substitute for thoroughness and quality, for accuracy and context.

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

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.

All institutions have lapses, even great ones, especially by individual rogue employees - famously in recent years at The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the three original TV networks.