Out of My Mind

A courtier's sole principle is to follow orders.

Hide a source when the administration says so, out one when commanded.

The courtiers are paid by Big Media but work for the administration. And it basiscally is just that simple.

And here's a primo example from Atrios:

It really was a illustrative moment about Washington pres corps culture when they all fell all over themselves to "out" Richard Clarke as a background briefer as soon as the Bush adminstration told them to. The fact that Fitz picked up on this shows he's a bit more clever than your average bear, which we already knew, but aside from its relevance to this particular case it is something which spoke volumes about the culture of Timmeh and the Gang.

It had nothing to do with high-minded journalistic principles for people like Timmeh. He was willing to throw out the confidential source promise as soon as Rove told him to. It was about maintaining favor with his sources - that is, the Bush administration.