White Knights:

The American Journalism Review's article on the Knight Ridder Washington Bureau is up and it's really revealing. This organization has broken major stories over the last couple years and does great work. Some KR journalists are worried about what will happen to this bureau as McClatchy takes over and bureau chief Clark Hoyt moves into a consultant role, at least one journalist has already announced a departure, and columnist/military expert Joe Galloway has decided to retire, so it's nice to see the group lauded:

Hoyt's people are out there every day competing against the big boys, and it is impressive how often they get good stories first, and get them right. Pound for pound, they might be the most seriously aggressive bunch of journalists in Washington.

Even KR bureau researcher/Web editor Tish Wells is quoted here, several times:

Wells says the bloggers "started to do an orchestrated campaign. We kept getting letters and e-mails: 'Why didn't the mainstream media do anything on this?' (the Downing Street memo story) And we sat there and wrote very patiently back to each one of them: 'We did do this, and here is the link to it on our Web site.'"

From the piece, a hope that the bureau's great work will be continued under McClatchy: "...McClatchy acquires the Washington operation with enormous admiration and respect for the work that has gone on here..."