While Mr. O?Shea's confessions seem unintentional, the statement of New York Times deputy national editor Alison Mitchell is straightforward. Ms. Mitchell is one of the very best political reporters in the country. When I was Newt Gingrich's press secretary, we were covered regularly by her. While she was tough and unrelenting -- she was also impeccably fair and thorough. It therefore didn't surprise me to see her quoted in Editor and Publisher with the bluntly honest statement: "I'm not sure that in an era of no-cable television we would even have looked into it."

 While she should be commended, as ever, for her unblinking honesty, what does that say about the mainline media? A candidate for president premises his campaign on his military record. Then 200 of his fellow officers, including almost his entire chain of command come out against him as unfit to command and appear to cite chapter and verse in support of their shocking judgment. And the newspaper of record would not "even have looked into it."

 In light of developments, I wonder if the press barons are re-considering their prior news judgments. After all, even though big media has done exactly what Chicago Tribune Editor O'Shea said they would do -- try to prove the Swift Boat critics wrong; the record is, at best, mixed.

 In fact, Fox News reported Monday that the Kerry campaign has said it is possible his first purple heart was awarded for an unintentionally self-inflicted wound -- just as the Swift Boat critics alleged in their book.

 Even Mr. Kerry's people have admitted the Swift Boat critics were right about Christmas in Cambodia. Nor has big media yet been able to disprove the assertion of the critics that Kerry's purple heart wounds were mostly immaculate. As Senator Bob Dole, who spent a couple of years in hospital after his ghastly W.W. II wounds, said: "Three purple hearts and never bled that I know of."

 The remaining allegations of non-combat are supported and contested by inconclusive but substantial evidence on both sides. Surely it was insufficient of big media to have decided, before investigating, that the charges were "wrong."

 Some of the honorable members of big media are now doing some solid reporting on the subject. The Washington Post's David Broder in this week's column reported: " In a 2002 conversation, Kerry told me he thought it would be doubly advantageous that "I fought in Vietnam and I also fought against the Vietnam War," apparently not recognizing that some would see far too much political calculation in such a bifurcated record." Indeed, some of us would think that sounded remarkably like "I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it."

 If big media returns to its duty to report even-handedly on this presidential campaign for the remaining two months, there may be no need to ship them off to show trials and re-education camps.