Michael Goodwin, writing in the New York Post, seems to hold out "comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable" as a good old standard of journalism. It is true that mission statement has long been discussed in journalism classes and in newsrooms, but it's a standard with its own problems. As this Poynter Institute post put it:
We need journalists to get at the truth and to keep watch against abuses of power. They have a hard enough time getting that right. So let's absolve them of the responsibility of charity or iconoclasm. If journalists want to comfort the afflicted, they should send money to the Red Cross.
