[grandalf]

When he first took office, George W. Bush thinned the herd of the White House press core. He broke the tradition of seasoned reporters getting access and replaced it with selective access based on his personal like/dislike of individual reporters.

This has had a chilling effect on de-facto press freedom in DC. In the meantime we've seen utterly shocking things go largely unreported b/c topics are generally verboten and the press instead focuses on less consequential issues.

In comparison to the stuff that is not getting significant press, the smaller stuff is largely irrelevant to the lives of most Americans.

There are great reporters who write about everything from local sports to local corporate corruption, but the high quality of their work should not shield the major players from accountability for utterly failing in their major moral and professional duty.