The absence of a critical fourth estate in the run up to the war in Iraq is widely acknowledged, even by the establishment media that trumpeted the lies and misinformation of the Bush administration. Take the NYT today in an article comparing intelligence on Iran's nuclear capabilities with Colin Powell's presentation on Iraq in 2003: "In many dissections of the blunders before the Iraq war, the news media, including The New York Times, came in for a share of the criticism for repeating Bush administration claims about Iraq without sufficient scrutiny or skepticism."You say? The question today is whether the media have learned anything at all. From torture to saber rattling over Iran is there enough scrutiny and skepticism? And if not are independent journalists picking up the slack? Glenn Greewald, a columnist at Salon and the author of Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics and Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army on the battle between the independent press and the mainstream media.Speaking of fighting from the margins. Mike Roselle, Earth First! co-founder and the author of Tree Spiker: From Earth First! to Lowbagging: My Struggles in Radical Environmental Action discusses the evolution of the radical environmental movement along with environmental journalist Josh Mahan, co-author of Tree Spiker. Finally, Jacob Hacker, a professor of political science at Yale and the author of Health at Risk: America's Ailing Health System--and How to Heal It on why the finance committee's rejection of a public option yesterday does not bode well for healthcare reform of any kind. Thanks to Frank Lopez for video in tonight's show. Less