Responding to OP.
In regards to irans government, you might find this intresting:
Iran, who holds the power?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/h...ml/default.stm
Rather intresting blend of church and state, where the church has the final authority.
Now as for Ritter's claims. I can't verify that. WIth media, i think everyone has an agenda. Some overtly, some covertly, but theres an influence into the what, and how of news reporting somewhere.
There is some behavior eveidence with Bush which would lend credence to Ritter. One need look no farther then his Axis of evil speech and his handling of North Korea when he took office. The short of it is, he doesnt "deal with evil", and if it was something Clinton started, he stopped it. So the agreed framework fell apart even further, and events spiraled into what we have today as a result of his handling (or lackther of) of the situation. What im saying is, he could have concievably handled Iran, in the exact same fashion. It would be in character for him having done so.
Is there some big media/government conspiracy cover up at work here? Id venture to, at the most, say special intrest groups manipulate news outlets, but i can't bring myself to say the goverment has any direct influence.
For intresting reading however, which seems credible (if not slighly opinionated), that provides supporting evidence (which is often very compelling), i'd present this link:
http://www.slate.com/?id=2077581&qp=26450
You'll find alot of critizism there, but none(or little) of it unsubstantiated. Somewhere in their you'll find an article on just about any of the major issues, past or present. From Iran, to Iraq, to Army recuritment standards, etc. Scroll back a few pages, some of the articles you might find intriguing. Espeicaly since this guy gives links, occasionaly to goverment produced PDF files in obscure (but public) .gov addresses you wouldnt otherwise normally find.