For Whom Do Journalists Work?

In discussing the various loyalties which modern journalists juggle daily, particularly given the trends in media conglomeration, I am forcibly reminded of a certain line from The Importance of Being Earnest, about how being found in a handbag "seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution. And I presume you know what that unfortunate movement led to?"http://iws.punahou.edu/department/theatre/curriculum/monologues/female/bracknell.html
In other words, placing journalism in the hands of cold-blooded capitalists seems to be akin to placing a baby in a handbag in the cloakroom of Victoria Station. The "Press" is included in the Bill of Rights, after all. http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html
Not that press members should be given any kind of royal treatment or excuses for bad behavior (I don't think that they usually are anyway), but they should occupy a special place in society. That place is, namely, to preserve American liberty as watchdogs, gatekeepers, and educators. I thoroughly agreed with the book in this regard. "Journalism's first loyalty is to citizens" (Elements of Journalism, 2). With any other intent, journalism becomes so much advertising and information overload.
At the same time, I recognize that journalists cannot be dewy-eyed idealists. The money has to come from somewhere. However, I believe that the current difficulties that the media is experiencing arise, not from the internet (because the decline of newspaper reading among postgraduates actually began in the 80's) but from shoddy, commercialized journalism. The New York Times, which is respected for the fact that it cuts advertising before news, should be an example of what happens when poorly-written novels do not replace babies in perambulators.