This week John Walcott, Washington bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers, accepted the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence and delivered a must-read speech about the state of journalism, especially its catatonic state between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq.

Here's a small sample:

Being an outsider, a gadfly, a muckracker, isn't always as much fun as being an insider, a celebrity journalist on TV and the lecture circuit. Worse, in these troubled economic times for the news media, it makes enemies, sometimes powerful ones, and it can offend readers, advertisers — and, as conditions in our business continue to worsen — potential employers in public relations and other industries.

(h/t Glenn Greenwald)