Dare Obasanjo posts a letter from Newsday which laments the supposed decline of journalism. Oh, please. When was the supposed golden age? The 60's, when journalists worked for a different set of large corporations? The 20's or 30's, which was the golden era of scandal sheets? Perhaps the "yellow journalism" period of the 1890's? Perhaps the earlier part of the 19th century, when papers loudly aligned themselves with one party of the other? I love the way people fall for this notion that the media has fallen from some former period of grace.

It's the same kind of a-historical view that thinks the anti-war protests of the 60's (or today, for that matter) are some new thing. There's a fantasy view of history, where everyone views the World War II era as being representative of all US history. People who think that ought to look at the history of dissent and reporting during other eras - the Civil War era, the time of the war with Mexico, 1812, WWI - pretty much anytime in US history other than WWII. The WWI era was the anomaly.

What Laurie Garret needs is a history book - it's pretty clear to me that she's got no actual knowledge of the subject.