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We journalists must be puzzling creatures to the rest of the world. We adore “The Front Page” and “Scoop,” which present us as lazy, unprincipled, and hopelessly in thrall to bogus information. Hildy Johnson befriends a murder suspect who’s escaped from jail and hides him inside a rolltop desk in the newsroom, so that nobody else can get an interview with him—great! William Boot gets an exclusive on a coup in the nation of Ishmaelia because the rest of the press pack has left town on some reportorial fools’ errand, and Boot was so hapless that he couldn’t manage to join them—love it! 我们记者应该算是别人看来非常新奇的一群生物了。我喜欢封面和独家资讯，但是这些资讯又证明了我们只是一群无纪律、慵懒和没希望的只专注于一些假信息的人。Hildy John通过把一个刚从监狱里逃出来的杀人犯藏在了旋转桌下面来避免有人会看到他，这还真是个好想法。Willam Boot获得了一次在Ishmaelia的专访，原因竟然是其他记者都跑到城镇外面去办事了， 而Boot这么“倒霉”是因为他没能赶上，这就是人品啊！ But, if journalists enjoy being raffish and self-mocking, what explains our equally powerful inclination (especially in the United States) to bang on portentously about the Founders, the First Amendment, the Fourth Estate, and the people’s right to know? Are journalists lovable rogues or human-rights crusaders? Or people who have granted themselves the right to switch between these two identities on a whim? | 
