No, they're different.
"No difference from other professionals" ?
As we established previously, it's stretching a point to refer to journalists as professionals. Where's the training syllabus, regulatory body, STANDARDS OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT that are expected of some of the rest of us ?
Good Lord man, you'll be referring to plumbers as Engineers, next...
Needless to say, just like any of human behaviour there's an S-curve with some good long tails, from Paul Foot or perhaps Anna Politkovskaya down to News International and the hacks in war zones who don't pay medical insurance to their local "fixers."
But there is a difference from a number of other crafts, trades and professions - very few of those hold themselves up as heroic defenders of truth and democracy, moralisers and standard-setters. The rest of us do our jobs and take more-or-less quiet pride: journalism sets itself up, and asks, to be judged.
My judgement ? A little more humility would be fine. Honourable exceptions among the trade press that I've met.
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