Is this a free press?

Nicholas Kristoff writes:

I've been quiet on Iraq lately because it's so tempting � but rather unhelpful � to rant one more time about President Bush's folly in launching this war. It's far harder to figure out what to do now that he's gotten us chest-deep in the mire.

I'm not certain that we can make a success out of Iraq, and the question John Kerry posed in 1971 is still a fair one: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" One senses an impatient rustling as people look for the exits from Iraq.

He could have been quiet a whole lot longer if all he had to say was that. I have to think that the press is not free any longer. It's in thrall to its own ingrown ideology, instilled in Journalism School and enforced by editorial policies and the society of fellow journalists.