Inside Politics Weekend: Palin pile-on

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By Jennifer Harper

And speaking of journalists behaving badly, even academics have had it with the press and the chaos of 24/7 news media. Mitchell Stephens, a professor of journalism and mass communications at New York University who is also a journalism fellow at Harvard, is one of the very weary.

"This is a call for a major reworking of journalism — of its purposes and its structures. Quality journalism should be defined not by the ability to bear witness, to pursue facts, to array the five W's, but by the ability to write stories that are interpretive, informed, intelligent, interesting and insightful. This list of goals should also include a word beginning with another letter: original," Mr. Stephens says.

"Achieving the five 'I's and an 'O' will require more of journalists — more education in a subject, probably, more study, more thoughtfulness, fresher thinking. It will require the ambition not to recount, not only to uncover, but to explain, illuminate and enlighten."

Days of yore

A dubious anniversary, perhaps. But maybe not. Besides, it's a slow history day today.

On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Reard unveiled a daring two-piece swimsuit in Paris, modeled by 19-year-old showgirl Micheline Bernardini.

Anticipating a press uproar, the media savvy Mr. Reard used a cloth printed like newspaper to craft the suit dubbed the "bikini" — a name inspired by a news-making moment that very week. The U.S. exploded a big fat nuke off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week.

And in unrelated news (certainly doesn't seem like two decades have passed …):

On this day exactly 20 years ago, Former U.S. National Security Council aide Oliver North received a $150,000 fine and a suspended prison term for his part in the Iran-Contra affair. His conviction was later overturned.

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