NCJ Number
225435
Date Published
2007
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study analyzed the presentation by the New York Times and the Washington Post of the Osama bin Laden audiotape of threats against the United States on January 19, 2006.
Abstract
The first period of coverage analysis in the two newspapers was from January 15-19. The second period covered January 20-24. For the two newspapers combined, there were 49 reports on terrorism in the first period (January 15-19) and 77 reports in the second period (January 20-24). This suggests that the two newspapers gave considerable importance to terrorism in both periods. There were eight reports in the two newspapers regarding the audiotape in the second period. There was also a considerable increase in the coverage of the surveillance act, the war on terrorism, and Iraq. Since congressional hearings on the surveillance programs were expected to begin in February 2006, this study concludes that this was the main factor in the increases of terrorism-related articles in the second period. The release of the bin Laden audiotape also contributed to this increase, however. The number of newspaper reports that supported the terrorism policies of the Bush administration was few during both periods. Overall, the news media portrayed the Bush administration’s “war on terrorism” negatively. Although the Bush administration sought to use the threats in the audiotape as a justification for its surveillance policies, the audiotape did not change the negative tone of news reporting in the second period. References to September 11 and threatening comments on the audiotape by Osama bin Laden apparently did not have the force in January 2006 that they had earlier. Although the media did not take the leading role in this trend, it at least reflected it. 1 figure, 4 tables, and 17 references