PROF. JOSEPH CAMPBELL: News media indispensable to democracy? Some evidence would be nice. “The Washington Post ombudsman invokes in his column today the defining conceit of American journalism: That without truth-telling reporters and editors, democracy would be imperiled. . . . But how does the ombudsman, Patrick B. Pexton, know that? What evidence does he offer to buttress the notion that the news media are indispensable bulwarks of democracy and capitalism? None. He presents the self-congratulatory claim about journalism’s value as self-evident.”