Simon, cultivating a style as gritty as his characters, takes it personally: he claims that the motivation for everything he writes is "revenge". His shows are revenge against those he holds responsible for the suffering and dysfunction of Baltimore, and revenge against the owners and craven editors who pulled the teeth of the watchdog.
An ex-journalist who's fallen way out of love with newspapers describes why it's too late for the industry, in an interesting piece in The First Post.