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.

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

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.

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

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

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.