Missing the forest for the trees.

Read Truth and Duty, Mary Mapes's new book about the Bush National Guard story that gut her fired from CBS News and left a cloud over the reputation of her boss, Dan Rather. Although she clearly does not number a gift for self-criticism among her more conspicuous virtues, she is convincing in her demonstration that her story was essentially true, and that those reporters who focused on her minor errors--which includes almost everyone who covered the story--missed the major point.

The result was that the press allowed itself to be conned by the right into allowing Bush to escape the truth about his non-service while Kerry was being pilloried with unproved charges of cowardice even though the evidence showed that he was a legitimate war hero. In this case at least, the media was more fascinated by the possible misdeeds of one of its stars than it was committed to making sure the public understood an important difference between two candidates for president of the United States.