I wish I could respond to all of the criticisms individually, but since I can't, I'd like to address the main ones:
I fully agree. I wish nearly every day that David Carr was still around to give us all a kick in the ass.
I don't cover the White House. None of the reporters I mentioned do. 99.9% of reporters will never work in the White House press corps. National political coverage and local news are two separate worlds.
The thing about being a journalist is, when you walk in on your first day, they don't give you an omniscient magic 8-ball. We try to get, to their best of our abilities, as close to the truth as possible.
Sometimes we just get it wrong. Sometimes I have gotten it wrong.
The end result is still far better than no journalism at all.