Jonah, there is no more conventional wisdom on the left right now than the notion that the media were a patsy for the neocon warmongers before the war. In fact, the media often channeled the usual liberal media bias during what they called “the rush to war.” (See more about ABC’s role as the leader in arrogant bias here.)
But Babs demonstrates the broad difference between conservative media criticism and liberal media criticism. Both assume the media are liberal. Conservatives want more deference to the method of objectivity. Liberals want more aggressive liberal media muscle-flexing. Conservatives wanted a fair debate about the war. Liberals considered the media a failure if they did not defiantly lay themselves in front of every tank to prevent a war from ever happening.