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.

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.

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

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

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

And what it depends on, of course, is whether the story itself is worth the ethical compromise it requires and whether the competition is onto the story.