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Press Coverage of Iran

Until the late 1970s, few Americans knew or cared much about Iran. Then, with the fall of the Shah's regime, the rise of the Khomeini revolution, and the 19791980 hostage crisis, Iran became a central preoccupation of the American public and of U.S. political life.

The chief source of news and opinion on Iran for most Americans throughout this period was the mainstream press. In principle the press was independent of both government policy and popular opinion, and broadly objective. In fact, however, the mainstream press shared the ignorance and the ideological blinders of the government it was supposed to be independent of, and of the public it was supposed to inform.

This study makes a qualitative comparative analysis of official positions on Iran through this period, as drawn from the Department of State Bulletin, with the editorial opinions and columns of The New York Times, the flagship of the American popular press and the closest thing the U.S. has to a national "newspaper of record."

This comparison shows the degree to which the press, as represented by the Times' editorial columns, fell down on the job. The Times devoted almost no editorial attention to Iran during the reign of the Shah before its collapse became evident in the late 1970s. Thus, Times readers were exposed to no critical or analytical views of the Shah's regime or to conditions in Iran. Later, during the revolution and hostage crisis, the Times mirrored the Bulletin in its simplistic moral outrage at the Ayatollah, still without providing its readers with any broader perspective on conditions and events in Iran.

References

"Agreement on the Release of the American Hostages" (1981). Department of State Bulletin (February, 1981), 1ff.

"A Home for the Shah" (1979). New York Times (23 April 1979), A20.

"Ambassadors in Crisis" (1979). New York Times (15 February 1979), A26....

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Press Coverage of Iran. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 19:12, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1684419.html