As electronic journalism came to be evaluated for its cost effectiveness, the network world began breaking up.

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

Most journalists now believe that a person's privacy zone gets smaller and smaller as the person becomes more and more powerful.

But the time has come for journalists to acknowledge that a zone of privacy does exist.

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

In exchange for power, influence, command and a place in history, a president gives up the bulk of his privacy.

No matter what name we give it or how we judge it, a candidate's character is central to political reporting because it is central to a citizen's decision in voting.