With more calls for a timetable for troop withdrawl from Iraq, it seems the only sector of society that fails to hear this is the so-called liberal media.

A few months ago, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) was a lonely voice articulating the need for the U.S. to develop a plan to complete the mission in Iraq and start to bring the troops home. Since then, he has been joined by a diverse crowd that includes Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, Democratic hawk Rep. John Murtha, the Iraqi delegation to the Arab League, and even (gulp) Bill O’Reilly. Despite that, Editor and Publisher’s survey of national newspaper editorials reveals that most of them are hanging on to the administration’s stay the course strategy.

Maybe they are just remarkably slow on the uptake. Maybe they are trying to avoid the embarrassment of their prior miscalculations. But any way you look at it, there’s room for only one response to those who parrot the myth about the liberal media – What Liberal Media?

Recent stories circulating in the international press are affirming the hate/hate relationship that BushCo has with honest, independent media.

Another leaked document from Downing Street tells the story of an enraged President Bush, that had to be dissuaded by Tony Blair, from bombing al Jazeera’s TV operations in Qatar. Everybody but the Mirror, and their source, is denying it, but it does make you wonder about the 2001 bombing of the station’s Kabul office and the 2003 missile strike that killed al-Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub at the station’s Baghdad center.

But wait, there’s more. Now, editors of British newspapers have been threatened with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act if they publish the details of the leaked document which they also deny exists.

The picture this paints of government interference with the press has Arab media being threatened with death and British media being threatened with jail . The U.S. media has nothing to fear because they’re already in bed with the government.