It's unreasonable to expect to gain a full understanding of public life in America from the daily newspaper, but the citizen ought not to be deprived of information the reporter has. Yet because of our rules of journalism, this often happens. For example, it seems to be an unwritten law in the journalism profession that a reporter cannot, in a news story, infer a motive from the actions or words of a public figure; only another public figure can do that. The reporter can discover two facts, but he can't add them together to make four, at least not in his own voice. The reporter has to present the secretary of state with his facts, and ask: Mr. Secretary, does this make four? If the secretary replies, No, that makes five, that's what the reporter has to print. I've read so many newspaper stories over the years in which the obvious political motive behind an action or a statement goes unstated. Instead, we get an analysis by some interested party.

XREF: Connects to ongoing debates about objectivity in journalism and the decline of the traditional 'he said, she said' model.

Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Imper…, loc. 136