In the case of The New York Times' Iraq war errors, which the paper finally acknowledged, we are now in the last act, aka Lessons Learned. This is when Wise Observers from all corners of the media landscape clear their throats in unison and agree that This Must Never Happen Again.

Yet it always does. Why?

The modern media have an insatiable need for exactly the kind of work that the news scandals are all about -- stories that are a bit suspect, tendentious, vaguely too good (or bad) to be true.

The news business often rewards people who get the story not quite right -- I'm talking about some of the smartest, hardest-working people in the news business.

Consider two news stories on the same hypothetical subject. Journalist A produces a balanced, especially gray report on the study. Journalist B does similar reporting, but in writing his piece, he winds up focusing on several prominent scientists who are particularly impressed with the claim. Better still, they are impressed in a memorable, quoteworthy way.