The Fourth Estate yard sale

Teen journalists at a private school in Santa Monica say news stories should be given away for free online, and they trust the corporations they despise to come up with a way to make money off it.

Their responses to questions posed by David Lazarus of the Los Angeles Times exhibit a disconnectedness peculiar to our culture. They want to make a living as journalists one day, but they support a business model that puts that living at risk: "Information should be free," declared Corey, 18, echoing a sentiment I encounter a lot online, particularly among bloggers, who feel a perverse sense of entitlement to other people's work.

Does this make them short-sighted? No, it just makes them American.