It really is a
strange phenomenon. I used to think that however little it made sense, journalists were at least serious about the conventions and "rules" of "objective journalism." After years of paying attention I find that more often than not they're just ways of defining who is and isn't in the tribe, who gets to sit at the big kids' table. Opinions and advocacy are of course fine, as long as they're the right opinions and the right kind of advocacy. I no longer believe journalists are so stupid that they have really managed to fool themselves about this. They know what game they're playing.
