What’s really killing journalism, via Romenesko:

Example A: ABC’s insane apology to Philip Morris — of all bloody companies — for the 1994 “Day One” investigation, “Smoke Screen,” based on fears a drawn-out lawsuit would queer its impending deal with Disney. Roone Arledge, beatified in hundreds of obits, was no hero in that incident.

Example B: CBS and “60 Minutes” famously knuckling under to the tobacco industry — with which the network enjoyed an especially conflicted interest — when it turned its back on Dr. Jeffrey Wigand. Even Hollywood was appalled by that one.

Example C: The universally disgraceful coverage in the press of proposed changes in FCC cross-ownership rules — and other guidelines despised by big media interests — which would broaden a company’s ability to further conglomerate, and limit the public’s access to a spectrum of information.

Example D: Newspaper endorsements of President Bush’s re-election effort, even in the face of often hostile editorials toward his administration’s policies, written over the previous four years … as well as countless newspaper articles demonstrating his inadequacies. Anyone who couldn’t see through the smokescreen of the shameless equivocations included in those halfhearted endorsements has never worked for a newspaper.

But no, it’s the Internet that’s the problem. Gotta be a conference on blogger ethics around here someplace.

A.