News Norms, Indexing and a Unified Government
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Exploring the relationship between the administration and the press during the early
stages of the war on terrorism (Sept 12 thru Dec 18) is important in that the mass media,
through their professional norms of objectivity and neutrality (Bennett 1984, Cook 1998),
not only had the potential, but an “institutional” responsibility, to offer counter opinion
and criticism within the realm of a quickly unfolding and aggressive foreign policy.
Timothy Cook in Governing with the News offers support for the theory that newsbeat
journalists can, and often do control elite instigated news by “weaving” in collected
comments and quotes. He argues that this “weaving” process happens even when or if
elite sources restrict journalistic access or attempt to focus attention on more favorable
topics. He reasons that “the news media still has final say over the ultimate product – by
raising other issues, interjecting doubts, questioning motives and seeking out critical
sources for balance.” (Cook 1998)
The level of press responsibility becomes heightened when one considers the relative lack
of critical discourse being offered by Congress who, in support of the Bush
administration’s outlook for the war on terrorism, politically lined up behind the
President. For example, votes by Congress authorizing military action against those
responsible for the September 11 attacks (a joint resolution approved September 14) and
the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act (signed into law October 26 after roughly a month of
debate in Congress) were overwhelmingly in the administration’s favor: Only one vote
across both houses of Congress was cast against the resolution, and only one senator
voted against the Patriot Act.
This Congressional support is greatly contrasted by that given to President George Bush
Sr. in the 1990 Gulf War. Congressional criticism of President George Bush Sr.’s Gulf
policy became an important theme in reporting only seven weeks into the crisis. New
York Times reporter R. W. Apple, Jr. wrote:
“Congressional criticism of the Bush Administration’s policies in the Persian Gulf,
nonexistent in the first days after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, then muted, is growing
Convention