The cozy relationship between the press and government rots away at the foundations of freedom and democracy. It is a moral duty of the press to expose corruption at all levels.

Notably, the NY Times (one of the few papers with the reach and scale to do meaningful investigation of US Government corruption) has written a variety of slander pieces about Julian Assange, strangely deciding to pick sides. The paper had the ability to act as a responsible intermediary between the leaked data and the public, but instead chose to flagrantly side with government power.

...This is a more subtle form of the same arrogant jingoism (and American flag pin wearing foolishness) of Fox News 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.