"When the press behaved in an amateurish fashion, it was generally because they were relying on amateurish investigation by the police and prosecutor"

See Stalin, the media's not biased and mistakes aren't their fault. What you see is the result of how things are presented to them. The media is like a computer, garbage in-garbage out. They're not responsible for distilling anything, in fact it would be insulting if they applied their superior intellect when reporting on the events surrounding us poor dumb yokelsh.

I feel I understand the media better. When their reporting is bad, it's because someone is doing a bad job of giving them information, but when reporting is rational it's because the press got wise and became "sharper and more skeptical" (one can think Slate.com's Jack Shafer is off on this, but it's almost exactly what happend with the Iraqi war). Which makes sense. I think we can all agree that the right time to be sensationalistic and mentally slow is when a crisis is first happening. Then after a while, when things have calmed down, that's the time to get sharp and skeptical. I've always said, if I'm on a sinking boat I plan to run around in a panic and push old ladies down in a desperate attempt to get to a life-boat. Then when I'm safe at shore, I'll calmly review my actions and investigate what I should have done and what I should do going forward. See panic when everyone else is panking, be calm when everyone else is calm.

I mean it works for the press, and we all know how much they're looked up to.