Anyone out there curious about how the release of the Iraq Study Group’s much-anticipated report was played out in newspaper headlines across the nation on Dec. 7?

Were the headlines critical of the Bush administration’s handling of the war? Or did they focus more on the need for a new direction?

The answer is …

… both — and pretty evenly at that.

That’s what the Project for Excellence in Journalism found out when it conducted a review of front-page headlines from 197 daily newspapers on Dec. 7.

The report found that the critical headlines outnumbered the more neutral ones by a tally of 88-73. They ranged from "Bush’s war policies are big failure, study says" (The San Diego Union-Tribune) to "Iraq report charts new course" (Burlington Free Press).

In the spirit of transparency, The Telegraph’s headline fell into the first camp: "Panel: Bush Iraq policies have failed," which reflected the lede paragraph in the Associated Press story written by Anne Gearan:

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s war policies have failed in almost every regard, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group concluded Wednesday, and it warned of dwindling chances to change course before crisis turns to chaos.

If you are interested, the full PEJ report is available here.