Special to the Narco News Bulletin

Part I of a Series

``There are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like that; there never is.''

- White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer

MEXICO CITY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2001: Is there a doctor in the house? Among the injured in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks is the United States press corps. American journalism has sustained a broken arm from patting itself on the back. The soldiers of the Fourth Estate don't admit it, but they are ecstatic to be the center of attention again. What journalists have failed to provide in hard information they have compensated for with pure adrenaline and self-praise. They are Media; hear them roar.

Whatever whimpers of self-criticism can be heard through the din are restricted to discusions of wartime ettiquette (such as what is "appropriate" to say "at a time like this") and of fashion, such as whether TV news anchors should wear American Flag lapel pins or not. (Narco News suggests to our colleagues: Yes, wear those flags, wear them wide and high, for that would offer the full disclosure that authentic journalism requires; really, based on recent behavior, you ought to wear uniforms, too.)

But on the basics of journalism - the who, the what, the where, the when, the why - the mediators-in-chief have so far failed.