As I watched the television accounts of the recent Persian Gulf War, I was
mesmerized by the news stories and video images that danced on my screen. I read
daily newspapers and weekly magazines, I listened to extensive radio coverage and
academic debates, and I tried to consume every source of mediated information
within my reach. As an educator, I introduced discussions about the conflict in my
classes and spoke at public lectures and conferences about the relationship between
television news and foreign policy. But few of these activities helped to quell the
unease that had grown as I watched the networks struggle to provide live, dramatic
coverage that would please most of their viewers, most of the time.

We did not fight any officially declared wars in the 1980s, but we did fight a war
against terrorism. Terrorists became this country's archenemies, and the "scourge
of terrorism" is still used as an instant justification for foreign policy gestures,
funding for special programs, covert operations, and military intervention. As a
public, we support these actions in the face of an enemy we do not understand and
rarely see--except on television.

Television serves as the primary source of information about foreign affairs for
most Americans, a situation that has prompted much research and concern. This
book is my attempt to assess those concerns in the context of television news
coverage of terrorism. Some of the findings may sound familiar, but others may
cause readers to see the performance of television news (and incumbent administra-
tions), particularly during times of foreign conflict, in a different light.

This book is not meant as an indictment of television, or even as a lengthy
criticism of the American Broadcasting Corporation, the network that served as the
focus for this study. It points instead to limitations of television journalism as
currently practiced and the implications of that practice for our assessment of U.S.

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