Christopher Hitchens joins my brigade

I was a fan of Christopher Hitchens then fell out with him at the time of the Iraq War.  Despite my estrangement with Hitchens over that seminal issue, I have always recognized that he has mastery over writing, one that I admire and envy.  He's written about his experience with esophageal cancer in this month's issue of Vanity Fair.  I recommend it to you--it's non sentimental and again, very well written.  I've linked it on the title of this post--so you can click and read. 

Coupled with the article on Sarah Palin, the September issue of VF is must read journalism.  Which leads me to a question:  why are society magazines such as VF or Rolling Stone doing all the good, investigative journalism these days?  Neither the 'news magazines' nor the  newspapers seem to be publishing any stories or editorials of any consequence.