Who Gets A Free Pass?

In a long essay fleshing out the many sides of Hitchens, Maria Bustillos revives the following gem from an old Vanity Fair piece:

In the old days of Private Eye, the great Claud Cockburn would sit the team of hacks and satirists around the table and say, "Right. Who does everybody think is wonderful? Who gets a free pass?"

The talk would run on, the hacks mentioning this name and that, until someone said, "I know! Albert Schweitzer!"

"Good, then," Claud would say. "Let's have a go at old Schweitzer."

She has this apt takeaway:

In our own day, scandals like the ones at the News of the World (and earlier, those at the Times) have drawn attention to the sometimes blurry line between hard-hitting investigative brio and depraved, careerist corporate hackery. Hitchens's then-paradoxical combination of total irreverence for every sacred institution and total reverence for revealing the truth was, and remains, irresistible. If I were to claim a personal manifesto for the practice of journalism (I won't, but if), Cockburn Sr.'s remarks would describe it perfectly. There's a vast difference between tabloid scandal-mongering, which is done for money and is despicable, and exploding the lies we are continually told by and on behalf of the Man, which is crucial, and worthy.