NCJ Number
170570
Date Published
1998
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This paper argues that news coverage of the drug issue in the United States during the 1980s helped to fuel support of the war on drugs by sensationalizing and exaggerating the "epidemic" nature of drug use, misrepresenting key aspects of the drug problem and by framing the issue almost exclusively as a matter of law and order.
Abstract
The chief architects of the drug war were Presidents Reagan and Bush, as well as their lieutenants in the various drug control agencies. Journalists, however, were also involved in the creation of a moral panic over drugs. Seduced by the dramatic possibilities for drug coverage and reluctant to look beyond public officials for information and perspective, journalists traded independence and professional skepticism for the chance to ride along with police on "crack-house" raids. The news coverage that resulted helped to legitimize the increasing incarceration of minority youth and a range of conservative social and economic policies. More recently, however, news coverage of the drug issue has expanded to include a number of critical themes and dissident voices. This democratization of public discourse was triggered by the Federal Sentencing Commission's 1995 report that recommended a reduction in the harsh Federal mandatory sentences for possession of crack cocaine. This signaled a crucial split in the elite consensus on drug policy and provided journalists with an establishment news source critical of current drug control policy. The recent publication of a series of essays in "The Nation Review," a conservative news magazine, that have criticized the drug-war policies have further fragmented the elite consensus in support of the drug war. 4 notes