Terrorism and the Media: From the Iran Hostage Crisis to the Oklahoma City Bombing

Nacos's (The Press, Presidents, and Crises) modest study explores how the news media, public opinion and presidential decision-making in the U.S. have responded to major acts of anti-American terrorism during the past 15 years. With the exception of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the most dramatic terrorist strikes have been staged outside the U.S. against American citizens by what the author calls ``Mid-Eastern groups.'' These include the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-81, the ordeal of hostages in Lebanon in the '80s and early '90s and the downing of Pan Am Flight 103. Nacos's argument-that terrorists seek attention through news coverage, and that their propaganda successes have been enhanced by television-seems almost too obvious to need utterance; likewise her point that media coverage for terrorists is ``merely the means to the more important end of affecting the general public and decision makers.'' Her conclusion seems to be that decision-makers need to better understand their vulnerability to media manipulation. (Nov.)