Long Winter for the Media

Good editors protect their staffs as fiercely as they prod and push them. Awarding prime front-page display to stories with heavy investments of sweat and resources is an important tool in lifting morale. The decision might have looked less urgent in a more confident, more settled newsroom.

History, of course, does not disclose its alternatives. But anyone who has been watching HBO's "The Wire" this year will understand why newsrooms might need morale-boosters now -- and how easily such attempts can misfire.

This magnificent dramatization of life in Baltimore's violent ghettos has systematically shown the failure of the city's police, schools, unions and politicians to deal with a modern urban crisis.

This final season focuses on a newsroom in turmoil and the broad failure of the city's media to reflect the corruption of the institutions they are supposed to cover. The grim results of that inattention show how power unused by the media is just as destructive as its misuse.

jimhoagland@washpost.com