Yes, and our fourth estate has an equally fine record of covering up military mistakes and accidents (sarcasm intended). There certainly wasn't much of an uproar when the Greenville sunk the Japanese trawler. And that bombing accident in Kuwait several months ago didn't generate much press speculation. Not to mention Tailhook, the Jenny Flynn sex debacle etc etc. Yep, if there is one thing that is certain, it is that the media falls all over itself to cover up military controversy. I'm sure they'd do whatever it took to cover up a little shootdown of a U.S. flag carrier jumbo jet.