Goodbye, Clark Kent: Superhero journalists disgrace our profession.

The planets will perhaps pause in their orbits, the Sun flicker, and the presses stop rolling for a moment as I report this morning's mournful news.

An investigative report by Ed Yong, whose tears must have dripped on to his manuscript as he crafted his sad tale, reveals that the practices of our superhero journalists have disgraced our noble profession.

Clark Kent has relied on his inside knowledge as a journalist to go on an entirely unauthorized crusade against evil. Lois Lane has long been romantically involved with her principal source. Peter Parker sells pictures of himself, wearing some kind of ersatz Halloween garb, to his employer, without disclosing that it is actually him in the photos! 

Yong's report sparked a bitter exchanged with Adam Rogers, who disparages Yong and other "self-appointed media 'watchdogs'" (oh, we feel the sting here at the Tracker). He calls Yong "pitifully misguided." Yong dismisses the "shameless apologism" from Rogers. A sad day for all ink-stained and ink-drawn wretches.

A moment of silence, please. And then the planets may resume their orbits, and the Sun shine, perhaps not as brightly as before. And may the presses lurch noisily into action once again. But Yong's lachrymose report will leave a hole in our hearts so big that you won't need X-ray vision to see it.

Sniff.

- Paul Raeburn