Navel Gazers

One reason Americans sometimes express negative views about the media is because we positively love ourselves. When we aren't out chasing the big stories—interns disappearing and presidential affairs—we often turn inwards. Sometimes this takes the form of ill-timed puffery, as when the The New Republic, on the eve of the discovery that it had been publishing fiction as fact, defended the profession's umbrage at President Clinton's penchant for prevarication. "For the press, truth is, or should be, an absolute value," declared then-TNR editor Charles Lane, who, after professing more professional self-love, added, "This is the hierarchy of values that makes journalists feel like public servants, even as they pursue the advancement of their own careers."

For the last two weeks, the inward gaze has focused on ABC's attempted fossil exchange, giving Ted Koppel and his Nightline the boot to make way for the once funny David Letterman. The coverage has displayed plenty of preening by millionaire entertainers who nevertheless consider themselves to be selfless servants of the republic. "This whole notion of public service, public interest, is one of the main reasons most of us got into journalism in the first place," instructed CNN political anchor Judy Woodruff, after absorbing a peroration on journalism and public interest from her colleague Jeff Greenfield.

The Koppel saga will pass and network news will continue to sag, even as Americans have exponentially more sources of information than they did in the big three's heyday. Those working for no-longer new news sources will continue to take a not-so-fascinating look inward for stories. It's easy, which is why I wrote this.