I get so sick of people handwringing over a fake journalist code of ethics. Romenesko is filled with people tut-tutting a reporter for daring to help soldiers craft questions for Rumsfeld because he "inserted himself into the story."
The media is always a part of the story. Every single story which is written implicitly inserts the media into the story. Reporting the "news" is not a passive event without consequences, it shapes events.
Every decision to publish an anonymous leak by an administration official pushing an agenda inserts the media into the story.
And, christ, where were all these people when half of the Washington press corps became an adjunct wing of Starr's OIC?
