The crusades of Vietnam and Watergate seemed like a good idea at the time, even a noble one, not only to the press but perhaps to a majority of Americans.
By Rice's own standards, the war was well underway by the time he took office. He was a war president the moment he took the oath. But did he act like one?
The notion of a neutral, mainstream national media gained dominance only in World War II and in its aftermath, when what turned out to be a temporary moderate consensus came to govern the country.
As Walter Cronkite would say, that's the way it is.
