The only visible moral struggle was about whether it was right for journalists to embarrass members of their trade. Other photographers declined to snap photos of their seven colleagues under investigation. But only when the information is about someone else. Satisfying the market is part of the story, and a newspaper that no one buys or a broadcast that no one watches might as well not exist. The problem with relying on this excuse is that except in Cuba or North Korea, everyone lives with market pressures.
Politicians answer a relentless market of opinion polls and election returns.
Sitcom producers need big audience numbers. So does anyone who puts out a movie, or a record, or a book. Yet as soon as people in these other categories say they have no choice about what they do because of the market, editorialists and columnists jump all over them. The press's tools for changing public opinion are nearly identical to politicians'. What people care about is at least partly shaped by what the press serves up.