"Muckraking journalism is 'a perverse stepchild of the culture of freedom'; that said, for as long as we want to champion freedom of speech it remains a necessary evil we must put up with."

Dying art

by Malcolm Forbes

"Vargas Llosa is consistently adept at showing us both sides of the coin, causes and effects, the rough and the smooth. He concedes that culture can be a “pleasing pastime” but argues that if it is only this then the concept becomes debased and is transformed into a cheap catch-all term that apportions equal weight to a Verdi opera and a Rolling Stones concert. Muckraking journalism is “a perverse stepchild of the culture of freedom”; that said, for as long as we want to champion freedom of speech it remains a necessary evil we must put up with."