John Lynch,

You say, “Have you ever seen a journalistic autopsy?”

Actually, I have. David Shaw has done two that I’m aware of for the LA Times. One on their slanted and mistaken coverage of the McMartin Pre-School brouhaha, for which I believe he win a Pulitzer (sort of proving your point on how infrequently these occur). Another on the Times’ conflict of interest in publishing a promo magazine for Staples Center and inserting it in the paper (and apparently profiting on ads in it) while neglecting to mention the Times had some interest (I think financial) in the Center.