The current issue of Columbia Journalism Review has an excellent article by Eric Umansky, "Failures of Imagination." It tells the story behind the New York Times delay in publishing the investigative report of Carlotta Gale on torture of detainees in U.S. terrorist prisons. The story was originally reported on page 14 of the paper. While the focus is on the NYT, the article reports the reluctance of other news outlets in handling this story, and other reports dealing with the war on terror. This article offers a lot to think about for those both on the left and right.
http://www.cjr.org/issues/2006/5/Umansky.asp