We can talk about all of the terrible problems that the business of making news has, but when it comes down to investigative journalism and the shit that report

We can talk about all of the terrible problems that the business of making news has, but when it comes down to investigative journalism and the shit that reporting actually does for society, I am hard pressed to say that we should abandon Journalism (in fact i think it's pretty crazy). Having spent 2 years amongst journalists, I can say this, for all of the weaknesses journalists have when it comes to specificity and accuracy in comparison to academia, there is no other field of inquiry that is tied closer to the public and the public's needs. (My caveat at this point being that commentary is almost always not journalism) And even for all of the unhealthy relationships between the press and centers of power in the US, there are still some intra-governmental conversations and differences that only get hashed out through the press. I'd make the argument that the press as a 4th estate is a vitally important part civic life in a free society.