Over in Salon, Gary Kamiya has a sobering look at the role of the media in the runup to the war in Iraq. Whatever politics people have, I think it's fair to state that the public was not well served by the way the media covered (or didn't cover) the events at the time. As a result, we saw both a drop in trust in the media, as well as the rise of the opinionated blogs, both on the political left and right.
At its best, the media does function as the 4th Estate, a powerful institution able to provide an independent check on the unfettered power of the government, at the times when the the native checks and balances appear to fail. At its worst, the media is complicit and the system fails, at least for a time. I am hopeful that articles like this one will serve as a reminder of our need of a robust and free media, now to include bloggers, to provide a chorus of dissent and questions when these are needed.