MICKEY KAUS: “For now, please read through Rutten’s piece and ask yourself if he shows any sign of awareness that he and his distinguished LAT colleagues only have their jobs because they produce a product that people are willing to pay money for? Rutten writes as if there’s a constitutional provision that credentialed journalists have lifetime professional tenure no matter how much money his paper loses or makes.”

This attitude is just part of the harm done by the press’s “Fourth Estate” self-image. Actual parts of the government don’t have to turn a profit. People who merely regard themselves as being part of the government apparatus, however, still do.