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

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.

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

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

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