I have always admired and respected journalists–my dear Grandfather was one.

I have even tried to emulate them, without much success (I took a journalism course, struggled with the AP Style Manual–as you can tell, I still do–, was intimidated by the leads and nut graphs, and awed by your media ethics).

I sincerely hope that the reports of the printed word's death are greatly exaggerated, as I agree with you on everything you say, including your (inadvertent?) praise for ther new bloggers in:

“Never mind nostalgia for exposing McCarthyism, Woodward and Bernstein et al, look back only as far as the Iraq war to see how journalists, after initially being gulled by the Bush Administration and goaded by bloggers, went about documenting the deception and uncovering what was being hidden.”

Bloggers willl never replace journalists, but they have done some useful things.

Thank you for your “lifetime of putting words and images on papers”

Dorian