(The Hoot)Any media is invitation to distort. The journalist is present to check the drift to distortion. Advertising seeks particular distortion. The difference is a matter of navigation; the tools are near similar, the mission is dissimilar. However, we see the rot in journalism as distinct from journalists. A decadent politics tarnishing its immaculate commentators - that's the tenor I sensed in the televised debate. Their own distortions were still going on or only minutes old. Don't news readers manipulate with modulated voice, ingratiating behaviour and such clichéd responses? Don't they have promotional write-ups and fan websites to cement their place on the tube? Don't those great interviewers leave you in awe of their camaraderie with political and industrial contacts even though the interview may have been ordinary? There's a texture to the media today that stamps home an image of winner. Unfortunately the lack of underpinning to that image is also equally visible. What endures as media aftertaste is success, an item we have come to recognize as product of manufacture.