Mainstream media outlets in the United States may have their disagreements, but on one issue they tend to speak in unison, and that is to support going to war. So when independent journalists come along questioning the rush to war, or the underlying premises driving public support for war, those mainstream corporate outlets join their voice again to smear the war critics, whether as useful idiots of the enemy, conspiracy theorists or disinformation merchants. The current Russia-Ukraine conflict is no exception.