Journalists should not wonder why their profession has such a bad reputation. The heart and soul of being a good journalist is telling the truth -- its pretty and ugly sides. But it seems all conscience has been thrown out the window in covering the alleged abuse by American soldiers at the Iraqi Abu Ghraib prison.

In the race for the latest angle on the story, national press outlets have hunted down a former corrections leader in Utah who volunteered to help stand up a depleted and corrupt prison system and raise it to American standards. This man, who led many correctional systems across the country during his career, left his job as Utah corrections director in the late 90s following the death of an inmate there.

While the death of the inmate is tragic, it is not uncommon for the top officials of corrections agencies to resign or be fired after a large scandal like that. They may have had nothing to do with the act personally, but they are ultimately held responsible. And so they move on.

Does this have anything to do with the abuse apparently afflicted on Iraqi prisoners by American service men and women? Absolutely not. But the mainstream press would like you to believe it does.

And so they try to tie this man to the scandal and find a way to place blame on him and his fellow colleagues who were hired by the Justice Department to improve the situation in Iraq, ignoring the fact that they had nothing to do with the training of troops and in fact left Iraq before the prison even opened.

A journalist writing such a story should find it hard to sleep at night.

In a very short period of time, this group of former corrections officials from the U.S. brought Iraq's prisons to a level where they could operate. They took care to ensure that those who were hired there would follow professional standards for corrections. They served their country this way.

And as thanks, they are rewarded with story after story by a blood-in-the-water media that cares little about who is left in their wake.

If there is a lesson to be learned from this official's story that is now being re-hashed cruelly in print, perhaps it is that he took responsibility for the actions of those below him and then was confident enough in his vision for professionalism to take it to where his country needed it.

Perhaps the media could communicate that story to those who really should be in the limelight - the military command.