MEDIA COVERAGE OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
by Susan D. Moeller, University of Maryland, College Park

The United States government initiated war against Iraq on the basis of an inaccurate representation of the scope and immediacy of the threat posed, and it did so without international authority.

This study reviews the content of American news media coverage during three periods of time when issues relating to what have been ubiquitously termed “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD) were being featured.

The study makes three important observations.
- First, it documents that virtually all of the news coverage accepted without serious question the political formulation "weapons of mass destruction" as a single category of threat.
- Second, the paper analyzes the media’s habit of associating mass destruction agents with the phenomenon of terrorism.
- Third, the paper notes that established operating principles of the American media make it easier for the incumbent President, whoever that might be, to dominate news coverage by setting the terms of public discussion. As a result, the American media did not play the role of checking and balancing the exercise of power that the standard theory of democracy requires.

Full story here.