Through the Revolving Door: Blurring the Line Between the Press and Government

Abstract

The study finds growing apprehension among some press corps members that hard-won advances in reporting and press independence can be eroded by line-crossing and other flirtations with the establishment. Jim Lehrer of the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour said, "Anytime Billy Bob reporter does something like this, it leads somebody to not believe what I am doing." He thought that most Americans do not understand "why we do what we do. They think we do it for ourselves, [not] for them ... They don't understand the First Amendment." He worries that journalists think "we can do as we damned please" and never have to explain.