The outbreak of smug is currently suffocating. Which is why the one-man anti-smug machine, aka Michael Kinsley, is still essential:
Two recent articles in Slate argued that newspapers (1) actually play a fairly unimportant role in our democracy and (2) are in this pickle because of financial shenanigans, not inexorable forces of technology. But let’s say these are both wrong: that technology is on the verge of removing some traditionally vital organs of the body politic. What should we do?
How about nothing?
CJR remains chastened but finds some reasons for cheer. Yglesias, meanwhile, calls out beat sweetening, i.e. when a hack trades early good publicity for access:
The underlying logic of the transaction strikes me as so compelling that I’m confident it will long outlive the newspaper or even the idea of journalistic ethics. Still, the widespread social and professional acceptance of this kind of thing—nobody thinks it’s a shameful thing to do—is one of several dozen reasons why I think most journalists could stand to be less self-righteous about their profession.
The Dish 