美国媒体在上世纪九十年代也还是蛮腐败的

No longer would the Post write such lines as one identified by Chal Roberts in his history of the paper: “Sam Jones, 24, Negro, was arrested for larceny yesterday.” Overnight, he eliminated “freebies”—trips paid for by the government and free tickets for anything. Also, after just a few weeks on the job, he called in the police reporter, Al Lewis, to ask if he was having parking and other tickets fixed for people in the building. Al’s prompt response was, “Yes, sir.” Russ then asked, “For whom?”—to which, much to Russ’s consternation, Al replied, “For everybody.” “What do you mean, everybody?” demanded Russ disbelievingly. “Well, people in the composing room, the advertising room, the newsroom, circulation. I just take them to the station and give them

to the chief.” Russ put an instant stop to this practice by saying, “Starting today, this minute, there is to be no more ticket fixing at police headquarters. We might have to be in a position to write some critical stories about the police department, and I don’t want you or the Post to be beholden to the chief of police or anybody else.”

-- KATHARINE GRAHAM PERSONAL HISTORY

让我感到非常震惊的是，这件事情居然是发生在二战之后上个世纪中叶，美国媒体走到今天这一步其实历史并不长，他们也是经历了非常不正规的操作的过程。