Given what the media have put the country through this past decade, it must come as a surprise to most Americans that the press has a code of ethics.

Given what the media have put the country through this past decade, it must come as a surprise to most Americans that the press has a code of ethics.

For decades, the journalistic norm had been that the private lives of public officials remained private unless that life impinged on public performance.

The ethics of editorial judgement, however, began to go though a sea change during the late 1970s and 80s when the Carter and Reagan Administrations de-regulated the television industry.

Journalists, who are skeptical to begin with, simply do not like to be lied to or made fools of.

The written tone and the spoken tone change and the reporters' disbelief in the veracity of the government spreads to the readers and the viewers.

The networks found themselves having to compete for an increasingly Balkanized audience.