Those are all good points. I think the main thing to keep in mind is that even today, the vast majority of journalists are not working for a nationally prominent paper or on national TV. A lot of journalism is just local reporting, and those people can have their issues, but being corrupt or drunk on power isn't normally one of them.

One thing that's ironic is that Nassim Taleb doesn't appear to understand that the kind of reporters who seek out Nassim Taleb aren't representative of the entire profession.