Those of us old enough to remember the leadup to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 might have a different opinion.

Many mainstream news outlets--the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and many of the national TV networks reported Bush administration pro-war propaganda *uncritically* for months.

The New York Times ran lots of FALSE WMD stories written by Judith Miller, a reporter who had written a book about WMD and thus had a vested interest in hawking the WMD story because it potentially increased her book sales. She also had ties to a very hawkish think-tank--she was an invited speaker at one of their events--that backed the war.

WaPo and the WSJ editorialized strongly in fav or of the war, too.

While the American media--with a few honorable exceptions--banged the war drums, they fired people like Robert Scheer and Phil Donahue, who opposed the war.

The Knight-Ridder news chain ran stories casting doubt on those bogus stories. If they could, these other newspapers could have too.

The constant WMD scare stories served as propaganda for war. BUT, they and their children, part of America's cultural elite, were not serving in the war. Their children were not coming home in body bags or without limbs, eyes, or genitals. Or severely disfigured from burns.

It was the children of America's working class who suffered and died in this "crusade."

I have taught students who went to Iraq. To me, on this one issue at least, the press was "the enemy of the people."

The fact that demagogues have also used this phrase does not make the charge any less true.