Signs of a restoration of a free press?

The New York Times is reporting that crowd estimates for yesterday’s main anti-Bush protest rally were around half a million people.
Just as it seemed obvious to me that the Times and other press elements were desperate to understate the scope of anti-war protests last winter (at which I was present), largely because the Times, led by ersatz journalist Judith Miller (who they have still not fired) favored the American aggression against the people of Iraq, it seems like the tide may be turning, with little things like an accurate count of the number of people who showed up to protest Bush.
Interestinger and interestinger.