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Each week we invite someone from outside PE to weigh in with their thoughts about CBS News and the media at large. This week, we asked Bertrand Pecquerie, director of the World Editors Forum, which publishes Editors Weblog, to contribute. Here, he contends that from a European perspective, American journalism is "in a profound crisis." As always, the opinions expressed and factual assertions made in “Outside Voices” are those of the author, not ours, and we seek a wide variety of voices. Here's Bertrand:

Is American Journalism Self-Destructing?

What difficult times American journalism has been having since 2003!

That year, Jayson Blair rocked the foundations of The New York Times and a collective hallucination caused the American press to search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.

In 2005, Dan Rather resigned as anchor of the “CBS Evening News” after an offensive from conservative bloggers. They were correct in exposing a controversial document as fake but did not serve the public by shelving questions about the questionable military service of the president.

Also in 2005, there was yet another attack on a journalist -- this time, the head of news at CNN, Eason Jordan. He dared to denounce the American army in Iraq for its “muscled approach” in relations with the American and foreign press.

And how can we forget the latest assault on American press credibility with the imprisonment and ensuing scandal around Judith Miller?

So far, 2006 has been free of a scandal of equal proportions. But American media in Iraq have still invented “Green Zone Journalism,” a form of bunkered and blind journalism that ex-hostages Jill Carroll of the Christian Science Monitor and Florence Aubenas of Libération refused to partake in.

Excuse me if this summary seems exaggerated, but seen from Europe, American journalism, once a model, now seems to be in a profound crisis.

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