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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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