Who the h**l was H.L.Mencken?

Journalism must be a very difficult profession.I don't mean the Sunday newspaper silly- article scribblers,I mean those who have the daily or weekly task of writing something thats newsworthy ,interesting ,memorable and maybe even profound enough to get their readers animated,either pro or con their article.
Some journalists are campaigners and get genuinely caught-up in what they write about.But if they become campaigners,say against big business or political corruption they not only have to please their readers,but also their editors and no matter how much protesting the newspaper owners do to the contrary ,those owners will be prepared to reign-in,however subtly,a journalist they consider to be a 'maverick.
However we look at it .those newspaper owners,who, we choose to call magnates,such as William Randolph Hearst,Lord Beaverbrook or nowadays Rupert Murdock and of course our own Sir Anthony O'Reilly all weilded or currently do weild tremendous influence ,either direct or implied over even the most professional or dedicated journalist on their newspaper(or for that matter any other news medium.)
In short it still comes down to an employer employee situation.In fact the better a journalist is and the bigger his/her salary ,the more he /she becomes dependent on the man who signs the paycheque.
The journalists' loyalties should always be to their readers.As far as I know, journalism or reporting began when the British House of Commons first allowed reporters in, to record the happenings of the House to the public at large.In fact I think that is where the expression the Fourth Estate was first applied ,in a jeering way ,to members of the press(at that time the three estates were ,the leaders of the church ,the nobility, and of course the ordinary people(or the lords spiritual,the lords temporal and the commoners).
The reporters,or journalists were there to keep the 3rd estate informed on the doings of the other 2 estates.
Does this still happen?Could a journalist ,in any medium , who is getting paid ,say a million a year not be very conscious of what the man who pays his salary wants him to say ?

So who the h**l was H.L.(Henry Louis)Mencken ?He was , of course,first and foremost a journalist.He was from Baltimore(I believe it is pronounced Bawlamer,by those who live there).He was editor at one time ,I think ,of the Baltimore Sun.He always spoke his mind through his writings no matter who he upset.At one time not very popular but eventually through his writings had a great influence on American literature.He was referred to as America's Bernard Shaw and called the Sage of Baltimore.Severly mentally disabled in the latter part of his life .he died in his seventies in about 1956.

Why should he be remembered?A piece of advice he gave an up and coming journalist,''Never accept a free ticket from a theatre manager ,a free ride from the chamber of commerce,or a favour from a politician''.

.By the way with the Irish Independent now at €1.70 and the Irish Daily Mail costing only .70c is the information gleaned from the I.I.worth an extra €6 per week?I have heard of the economies of scale of newspaper production ,but surely this is nothing short of greed....