What is the journalist's job?

Atrios has a short, pointed note on this question (which comes as a rumination on this prior post). The heart of it:

[T]he press has internalized the notion that the highest ideal is not to report the truth in a way which educates people, but the ideal of appearing unbiased. This isn't balance, it is simply braindead stenography. And, more importantly perhaps, it's the kind of braindead stenography which favors views and viewpoints which are backed by powerful well-funded interests.

The market isn't necessarily the right determiner of what information/viewpoints the public hears...