Strategypage has a great piece on the myths that the press believes:
In the last decade, the mass media has been covering military matters much more intensively than they had in the previous decade. It showed, in the amount of misinformation and bad analysis that flowed from so many media outlets. As the old saying goes, when presented with the truth and the myth, print the myth. It gets more attention. These are some of the more misleading, but profitable, ones.
I won't go through the myths point by point. But then again, if you've read this blog (or Strategypage, for that matter--and you should read them) you'll have gotten them. Although I didn't focus too much on the contractor issue, though I was quite aware of it.
Don't expect them to get better, they have more important things to do, after all. "Journalism" degrees, indeed.