>> I think sometimes their passion for searching/reporting the truth wins out over protecting human dignity...
Definitely there's ego in reporting a sensation first, with numerous journalistic slogans about the need to publish quick before the icecream melts/gets scooped by the competitor. And it works because there is a widespread prurient satisfaction in seeing the mighty brought down. Classic race to the bottom. ;-)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
