The Parameters Of Government Manipulation Of The Press And Press Interference In Political Events

By Author: Amandda
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Allegations of blatant press manipulation by the Reagan administration reached a climax with the resignation of Bernard Kalb as chief spokesperson for the State Department. Kalb described his resignation as a protest against the deception and disinformation campaign launched in August 1986 against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. "You face a choice—as an American, as a spokesman, as a journalist—whether to allow oneself to be absorbed in the ranks of silence, whether to vanish into unopposed acquiescence or to enter a modest dissent." He added, "Faith in the word of America is the pulse beat of our democracy. Anything that hurts America's credibility hurts America."68 Before accepting the post of assistant secretary of state Cartier Santos Replica Watches for public affairs, Kalb had been a correspondent for the New York Times, CBS, and NBC for almost forty years.

Charges that the Reagan administration had engaged in a disinformation campaign about Libya and its leader arose after a story by Bob Woodward appeared in the ...
... Washington Post. The story disclosed details of a memorandum by Vice Admiral John M. Poindexter, then White House national security adviser, reportedly urging a campaign against Qaddafi involving "real and illusory events—through a disinformation program."

The White House denied that the administration had planted false reports with news organizations in the United States, but former presidential spokesperson Larry Speakes had no comment on whether the administration had tried to conduct such a disinformation campaign against Libya in foreign news organizations.

According to the Post story, major newspapers had carried erroneous news reports generated by this plan. A front-page article appeared on August 25, 1986, in the Wall Street Journal, saying that Libya was planning new terrorist attacks. Citing unidentified "U.S. and West European intelligence officials," the story said that the United States was on a "collision course" with Libya, that "growing evidence suggests" that new Libyan terrorist attacks were being planned, and that "the Pentagon is completing plans for a new and larger bombing of Libya in case the President orders it." All three network television evening news programs repeated the substance of the Journal's re-port the night after it appeared, and on August 26, many major newspapers quoted identified and unidentified officials who seemed to confirm the Journal article. Some newspapers, including the conservative Washington Times, began to question the re-ports and to suggest that a disinformation campaign was under way.

In a news conference, Secretary of State George Shultz refused to comment on whether or not such a campaign of disinformation had been undertaken, but he seemed to confirm the report through his answers, which praised the use of deception if it would cause problems for the Libyan leader. An unidentified White House official was quoted making similar statements:
We think for domestic consumption there will be no problems. It's Qaddafi. After all, whatever it takes to get rid of him is all right with us—that's the feeling, we think, in the country. On the foreign scene it will cause problems, though. We're constantly talking about the Soviets doing disinformation. It's going to cause difficulties for us. We don't think it's a major, lasting firestorm, but there will be some ripples.

As these comments suggest, public attitudes about the proper roles of the press and the government are an important factor in setting the parameters of government manipulation of the press and press interference in political events.

It may seem peculiar that this chapter contains no discussion of influence exerted by the Federal Communications Commission. In our judgment, that influence ranges from minuscule to nonexistent. Network executives frequently express fears of licensing nonrenewal, but no such fears are warranted by past FCC action, at least in regard to news programming. Barry Cole and Mai Oettinger report, "A renewal application has never been denied solely because of a failure to meet community needs and problems, an excess of commercials, a lack of public service announcements, or an inadequate amount of news, public affairs, or other no entertainment material."70 That statement remains true today.

The news media influence and are in turn influenced. The most effective manipulators of media news are those who understand journalistic norms and routines and use them to gain media access and to influence Cartier Replica Watches the nature of coverage. The news media are influ?enced by highly paid news managers and their clients and by other individuals and groups. The media are also affected by commercial pressures for ratings and revenues and by the protests of those offended by news coverage. Finally, they respond to pres-sures from those in positions of political power.
In the next chapter, we explore the roles of ratings and revenues in mass media social systems.