Why didn't they ask the right questions?

Philip Adams chatted to Jay Rosen on ABC National recently (here) he makes some important points.
The press, he maintains, has become 'fascinated' with the political game. In so doing they have lost their focus. They have forgotten that they are not called to be agents of the political, but rather critics of the same.
This is rather a good point.
Are the 'press' the critics of the process, or participants in the game?
The question that goes round and round in my mind.....