Government's Cock WIll Not Suck Itself; That's What a Free and Independent Media is For

I've complained here before to ask what the hell is wrong with my colleagues and compatriots in the American media profession. The media is supposed to expose government wrongdoing, not justify it, yet if you read mainstream coverage of the ongoing Edward Snowden saga, the overriding theme is "It's okay for the government to violate the constitution and break the law, but beyond the pale for anyone to expose this."

Over at Anorak I discuss this problem in detail, and explain to our British cousins across the pond exactly why this is so creepy from an ordinary American's perspective:

... the bulk of America’s professional pundit class considers Snowden a spy, a traitor, or worse.

What’s weird about this is that American journalists—especially old-guard types who’ve been in the news biz long enough to work their way up to the highest ranks of the pundit class—love to wax poetic about the importance of the First Amendment  and the Fourth Estate, and every newsroom in America has at least one editor who keeps Thomas Jefferson’s quote tacked above his desk: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

So I don’t know when the hell all these patriotic American journalists decided the purpose of the Fourth Estate is to make the other three look good, nor who the hell told them “Government’s cock will not suck itself; that’s what a free and independent media is for” ....

Is it even realistic anymore, to hope things will get better?