Things that matter

This isn't a narrative story, but it's an important one. Gina Smith of The State in Columbia, S.C., writes about how she waited for Gov. Mark Sanford at the Atlanta airport. She was the only reporter present when he stepped off a plane from Argentina, where he'd been for four days, while staff members told the public he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

Hours later, Sanford admitted he was having an affair. As Smith writes, "I always will wonder if the story would have broken if I had failed to catch him in the airport."

Yet another example of why we need professional journalists.