Excellent column the other day by Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler, reflecting on the press's coverage of the post-9/11 and Iraq situations.

Here's a quote that summarises it pretty well:

Looking back, my own sense is that the administration was more skillful in switching focus from Osama bin Laden to Saddam Hussein than the press was in detecting it early, and more skillful in linking Hussein to 9/11 in the public mind than the press was in challenging that, although it tried hard. It is my sense that the shift from strong support for the war in Afghanistan to more dissent against war in Iraq took a while to surface in the press, and some of the early public challenges and displays of disagreement were underplayed or missed.