Responsibility of the Fourth Estate

I've said my piece on the stupidity of Palmeiro and the consequences therein but as always I want to take this opportunity to critique the sports media on this (and not too subtle critique of the media in general). Jayson Stark wrote :

"But I'd still vote for him. First ballot. Every ballot. Why? Because I'm not a cop. I'm just a guy who covers baseball for a living. So it's not my job to police this sport. It's the sport's job to police itself."

There is an old latin saying Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? roughly translated as Who watches the watchmen? MLB via Bud Selig failed to investigate and deal with the steriod problem because frankly it was beneficial for the owner's bottom line to turn a blind eye. However sports writers should not care about baseball's bottom line or maintaining friendships with ball players. They should care about serving the public's interest. It is the duty and job of any reporter to discover the truth whether it be cheating or malfeasance or corruption in any form and to share it with the public. Only with public awareness can pressure be brought forth in order for the truth to see daylight. A reporter shrugging his or her shoulders and saying its not my job or I have no influence on baseball is not only shrugging off his orher responsibility to baseball and to the public at large but is a liar. Starks is right in that we don't know all the facts on Palmeiro or other users but you would think some reporter would want to try to discover it rather than throwing up his/her hands and saying: its not my job to do actual reporting. Well guess what- a reporters duty is to watch the watchmen.