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

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.

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

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

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.

The relationship between press and politician - protected by the Constitution and designed to be happily adversarial - becomes sour, raw and confrontational.

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.