This bit from Paul Kane of the Washington Post has drawn a lot attention:

Paul Kane: . . . We reported what Olympia Snowe said. That’s what she said. That’s what Republicans are saying. I really don’t know what you want of us. We are not opinion writers whose job is to play some sorta gotcha game with lawmakers.

It's an interesting defense. Given the troubled financial straits newspapers are in, it opens up the question - does "reporting" really require reporters? Couldn't the Washington Post just let Kane go, pocket the money and just let newsmakers know that the WaPo will be uncritically publishing their quotes? They can even set up some type of electronic form that will allow the quote to be submitted directly to the paper, formatted automatically and voila! we have tomorrow's newspaper! There's a lot of savings to be had by newspapers with such an approach. If the newspapers don't want to do it, maybe Google can do it and avoid the recent controversies.

Speaking for me only