I have no idea why anyone still buys the myth that these guys are "journalists." He had nothing to do with the story except that his co-workers indulge his and other talking heads' sense of pomposity. I thought the Peter Arnett saga a few years back would have taught people that: the guy's story fell flat, and his defense was, of course, the truth. He had nothing to do with writing or researching the story, he merely narrated and had someone ghostwrite a version of it for Time.

Go back and contrast that with Murrow's exposé on McCarthy. That's fucking real: some guy who looks like he needs a nicotine break, not even looking at the camera, having put together the entire thing himself.

It's like that line in 1984, when Winston asks if O'Brien had read Goldstein's book: "I wrote it. Or at least part of it. As you know no books are written by single individuals anymore."

Bunch of glorified, overpaid actors. It matters less that they're smart or well-informed than that they can swindle people into feeling they are.