Entitlement

David Carr is, I think, more than a little off-base in his suggestion that Glenn Beck is off-limits for the same kind of research and criticism that Beck is advocating be deployed against those he disagrees with.

Here's the background: After Glenn Beck used his Twitter feed to urge people to "FIND EVERYTHING YOU CAN ON CASS SUNSTEIN, MARK LLOYD AND CAROL BROWNER," Keith Olbermann used the same language to urge people to research Beck and his allies "I don't know why I've got this phrasing in my head, but: Find everything you can about Glenn Beck, Stu Burguiere, and Roger Ailes."

Olbermann's response made Carr uneasy:

Decoder is all for fearless reporting, but making commentators and media executives the target of investigations reminds us of the ambush interviews that "The O'Reilly Factor" was doing earlier this year ... It all makes some of us at Decoder a bit uncomfortable. While Mr. Beck may be serving as a proxy for the party of opposition, his targets are members of the administration, a rugged game to be sure, but not one that attempts to investigate journalists and commentators for having contrary opinions. ... Once the game of oppo research on the press begins, it's hard to tell where it might stop, no?

Carr's concern seems to reflect a sense of entitlement many journalists possess -- they think nothing of scrutinizing and criticizing others, but when such scrutiny is aimed at them, they cry foul.  But freedom of the press does not carry with it freedom from scrutiny, nor should it.  If Glenn Beck is engaging in rampant hypocrisy, or lying, or using his television show to shill for companies in which he has a financial stake, there's no reason to think he should be immune from criticism for those activities simply because he is nominally a journalist.  

And yes, that applies to legitimate journalists like David Carr, too.