In the process, the American people also became victims. Time was when the venerable Associated Press prided itself on shunning anonymous news sources. But it, too, caved in to the easy way. A few newspaper editors took those measures, but not enough to derail the trend. Nothing written or implied in the First Amendment says a journalist has to have an exclusive story, or else go live with the bears.
Straight journalism is some of the hardest work imaginable.
It demands an unflagging lifelong study of how the world works, a lot of acquired knowledge about a lot of seemingly unrelated things, an ability to explain those relationships without editorializing in news stories and an eagerness to get off your duff, wear out shoe leather and knock on door after unopened door until the complete account is documented. Perhaps it should be no surprise, given some of today's preparation for journalism, that an itch to get it first, even if half-baked, combined with sloth and a coveting of celebrityhood have proved to be too much temptation for many in the press to resist. The G.I. Bill of Rights made it possible for many of those who would otherwise never have gone to college to enter hard-nose journalism schools. They understood, better than some who came along later, that the only way democracy could survive a hostile environment was for its people to be in position to make intelligent choices. In dictatorships, that's irrelevant, indeed, anathema.