Syndicated columnist Jack Kelly has made the accusation in his Op-Ed pieces that the media is in the process of losing the war in Iraq for the US by talking down the good news and focusing on the bad. According the Kelly, the war is already won, and the media is engineering a defeat for their guy Kerry.

According to this article, from the Financial Times (pointed to by Juan Cole), it's the military--at least some in it--who are saying that we may have lost the war already:

Counter-insurgency experts are advising the Pentagon that recent positive policy shifts in Iraq may have come too late for the US to avert defeat, or at least a protracted and unpopular military commitment.

Although US forces are performing extremely well at tactical level, the advisers - some recently returned from - Iraq say the wider war of winning "hearts and minds" is slipping away. The Bush administration runs the risk of losing its broader goals of establishing a stable democratic Iraq.

One professor from the Naval War College said, "We are today not far from disaster." Another analyst described the operational level of US actions as a "disaster". The Financial Times does not mention if any of the military planners they spoke to ever worked for the media. They do point out, however, that they have worked for the United States military for some years.
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