When NBC News enlisted retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey as a military analyst, its journalistic sin was not merely withholding his ties to defense contractors. The greater sin was using him at all.

Media outlets blamed this summer's fighting in South Ossetia on nationalism. But when post-election violence swept Kenya, the media pointed the finger at tribalism. It's a difference of just one word, but oh, such a word.

The search for meaning is a never-ending quest for political reporters. Just because we have no news to support a supposition is no reason to stop now. Actually, come to think of it, it is.

What journalists don't know about the past jeopardizes their ability to put the present in context. And if voters don't fully understand the present, what kind of decisions will we make about the future?

Regardless of whom you voted for, you might have cried, too, when the nation elected its first black president Tuesday. How can I be objective and a little misty-eyed? Because nothing in the journalist's rule book precludes us from being human.

The winner in the presidential race is finally known, but we've known for awhile that in many ways, journalism has been the loser this campaign season. Here's why.

The single best antidote to hate is knowledge. Not of plumbing licenses and long-ago associates, but of the things that help us understand our lives and society. What the world needs now is not love, but journalism.

TV consultants say only 25% of viewers care about sports, prompting stations to reduce sports coverage. But maybe that missing 75% of the audience just doesn't like how sports are covered. Want to win back those viewers?

Remember when your mom chided you with, "If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you jump, too?" Tom Brokaw - and all reporters - would do well to remember that just because everyone says the same thing doesn't make it true.

It's true. The sky IS falling - if you consider plunging comets part of the sky. And we ARE all going to die - if you consider life a terminal condition. But in today's drive-by media culture, we may not notice that being accurate and being right aren't always the same thing.