When I was reporting, I was part of the Florida capitol press corps, meaning, a large pool of reporters who mostly operated as a pack, covering the same events every day and then comparing our versions with those of our counterparts the next morning. Every once in a while, one reporter would come up with a novel angle or a detail the rest had missed, but for the most part, all our coverage was about the same.

But then, every once in a while, a member of the press corps would start to stray...injecting details the were not only novel, but as far as the rest of us could recall, non-existent. These would invariably skew the story to one side or the other (remember, these were mostly high-stakes political issues). Often, that reporter would soon show up on the opinion page of their paper (something that's not exactly standard practice) with a column on the topic, giving them much more freedom to draw conclusions that the rigors of true journalism don't permit.

That's when it became apparent that they had sold out...that the differences in coverage were not random, but deliberate and strategic...that they were getting something in return for injecting a specific spin on their coverage.

At that point, it was often only a matter of time before they self-destructed. I literally saw this happen a half-dozen times, and  truly felt pity for them.

Joe Nocera's skewed take on this issue can no longer be attributed to mere differences in human perceptions. He has sold his soul. And I guarantee you he hates himself for it. Certainly, whatever he's getting in return helps to numb the pain, but that stuff never lasts.

The good news is, the same forces that are moving newspapers into obsolescence are making it harder to get away with this sort of "Joe Job."  In the old days, if any one market's newspaper had a compromised writer, it was tough to draw attention to it because MSAs were so cloistered. Today, the same forces behind the surge of Bob O'Brien and bloggers like him are not only making the Times less relevant, but also making it possible to show Nocera for the stooge he has become.

The process begins with Tuesday's Bloomberg story. We must do whatever we can to promote it and ensure that everybody who matters sees it and understands what it means for the miscreants and the hacks like Joe Nocera who serve them.