Howard Kurtz

In just over a year, Glenn Beck's blinding burst of stardom has often seemed to overshadow the rest of Fox News. And that may not be a good thing.

Whatever the pluses and minuses, a trend that took root in local television is spreading to the pricier precincts of network news as well.

Six months ago, network executives were complaining that the White House was costing them tens of millions of dollars by pressing them to carry presidential news conferences in prime time.

Six months after a scandal that tarnished The Washington Post's reputation, the newspaper said Thursday that its journalists will not participate in company-sponsored events with newsmakers unless the proceedings are on the record.

How exactly did the New York press miss the fact that the extravagantly financed Michael Bloomberg express almost got derailed?

Saving journalism and achieving digital democracy might seem like a pretty tall order. But that is the task of a high-powered commission that says, in a report being released today, that the country's growing hunger for information is "being met unequally, community by community."

A look at three recent stories, all relying on unnamed sources and all raising questions about the motivation of those trying to manipulate media coverage to their advantage.

It has become a familiar chain reaction: Talk-show hosts whip up a noisy controversy, which hits higher decibels as it spreads to the establishment media, which costs some unfortunate soul his job. But now the middleman -- the journalistic gatekeepers of yore -- may no longer be necessary.

In many ways, news organizations have risen to the occasion; in others they have become agents of distortion.

Dan Rather is wrong. Barack Obama should stay out of it. We don't need no stinkin' presidential commission. Rescuing the news business is beyond President Obama's power.