Chapter Outline

Introduction:   A Patriotic Press

• Global opinion moves from “brotherhood” with the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks to hostility four years later.
• Reaction of rporters with President Bush the morning of the attacks.
• Cognitive psychology, public perception and reality.
• Visual images: Injured civilians and soldiers banned; pictures of Hussein's dead sons make front pages. Students' reactions and the implications of their reactions.
• Journalists did not pursue "difficult" facts that would have clarified events of 9/11.
• The media's history of supporting war and reporters' criticism of current coverage.
• What exactly is a war on terror? How reporters were provided with appropriate questions to ask but never asked.
• How do we win a war on terror? George W. Bush's father warned against incursion into Iraq – where is the media's institutional memory?

Chapter 1: A Fearful Press

• Madrid bombings and media response compared to the 9/11 attacks.
• Reporters feel victimized by 9/11 attacks and say it influenced their coverage.
• Bush is transformed by the media from a “bumbling” novice who vacationed too often before the attacks to a courageous, “Trumanesque” leader after them.
• Fear becomes a tool for the administration.
• Cognitive Dissonance Theory and official explanations about America's enemies.
• Successful attempts to distort reality: Terrorists don't care about U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia or the government's unwavering support of Israel; it is the country's freedom that they hate.
• Why are Americans so unaware of world events: international news in the U.S. was dropped in favor of infotainment.

Chapter 2: An Obedient Press

• Social Psychologist Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments applied to the American media after the 9/11 attacks.
• A self-censoring media: American media's past mistakes with self-censorship and its decision to do so again after the 9/11 attacks.
• Psychological studies on conformity, group think and role playing applied to the media.
• “Be careful what you say”: American media succumbs to pressure to remain “patriotic.”
• Newspapers punish reporters who are deemed “unpatriotic.”
• Media allows administration to dictate terminology it uses to describe events and conflict: Allies become "the coalition of the willing;" "embeds" and "unilaterals" join troops in Iraq; troops go after "targets of opportunity;" "military aged males" rounded up; Iraq to receive "partial sovereignty."

Chapter 3: Civil Liberties, Security and Silence

• One month after 9/11, with little discussion, the president signed the USA Patriot Act, one of the most far-reaching pieces of legislation in history.
• What is the Patriot Act?
• Scant media attention was paid to the negative aspects of the legislation until after it became law. The media took its lead from librarians who opposed provisions of the bill.
• What the press missed: The Justice Department did not stop the 9/11attacks because of incompetence, not legislative constraints. Examples of missed opportunities and advanced warnings about the attacks.
• Was the new law necessary? Has it made the country safer?
• How the Patriot Act has been used: Anti-war protestors harassed, law students questioned.
• Reports of “hysterical communities” refusing to cooperate with the legislation.
• Patriot II provisions signed into law without media notice.
• Reporting the facts during a time of national paranoia.

Chapter 4: The Buildup to War

• Major U.S. papers of record call for war without checking facts.
• Why the country's top papers ran rumors and innuendo on its front pages.
• Is the media the “mouthpiece for whatever administration is in power” as suggested by a Washington Post reporter? Should they stenographically report what is said, as a New York Times' reporter claims?
• Self-interest and the media explained.
• Pre-war coverage by major papers. A look at Judith Miller's work.
• Colin Powell's UN speech: U.S. versus international media coverage.
• New York Times and Washington Post acknowledge mistakes and refuse to apologize.
• Papers of record continue to print rumors as fact.

Chapter 5: Embedded Reporters: Was Objectivity Sacrificed for Access?

• Continuing with the president's “you're either with us or against us” theme, journalists go to boot camp. Enthusiastic reports about new friends in the military filed before the war begins.
• Journalists become the focus, the impending war becomes a game.
• Networks battle for viewers. Patriotic logos adopted.
• Journalists become one of the “band of brothers.” Examples of reporting from embeds.
• Reporters struggle with remaining neutral and bonding with their protectors. They increasingly become involved in the action: pointing out snipers, assisting injured civilians, surgery performed by doctor/reporter.
• The disconnect for an embed who leaves his battalion and finds chaos. Reporting a war while moving in a forward direction.
• Praising an historic war while avoiding ugly images.
• Catching military mistakes and reporting them.
• “Unilateral” journalists come under attack. Is the U.S. military targeting journalists?

Chapter 6: An Indifferent Press

• Civilian deaths and the war in Afghanistan.
• International media covers civilian casualties with more vigor than the U.S. media.
• Fox News' Brent Hume explains: “Look, neutrality as a general principle is an appropriate concept for journalists who are covering institutions of some comparable quality. This is a conflict between the United States and murdering barbarians."
• Theory of hate and moral exclusion.
• Reporting the bombing of villages in Afghanistan and shock and awe in Iraq. Are civilian casualties news?
• CNN orders reporters to remind viewers that thousands Americans were killed on 9/11.
• Power, influence, and political behavior in news organizations and how it affects reports.
• America teams with brutal dictators and warlords.
• John Walker Lindh   and the new “gloves off” policy of military.
• Norwegian paper chronicles abuse long before Abu Gharib pictures.
• Torture in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Chapter 7: A Propaganda Press

• A comprehensive look at the Bush administration's public relations strategy and how the media continues to fall under its spell.
• The administration's $254 million plan for promoting its policy. The Government Accountability Office calls it “covert propaganda.”
• Journalists were aware of propaganda problems during times of conflict; past examples.
• Administration builds PR base and announces PR blitz for war is coming. Iraqi dissidents begin to proliferate news coverage.
• Few anti-war voices represented in the media during the build-up to the Iraq war.
• Propaganda basics. Reporters escort God into the political arena.
• Repetitive Partnering: Saddam, bin Laden, al Qaeda
• Dizzy reporters are spun and spun again.
• Propaganda perfection: Jessica Lynch; Saddam's statue toppled.

Chapter 8: Lessons Learned

• A summary of what lessons the media and the general public should take from recent events. Where to turn for unbiased news.
• How a passive, self-censoring press can be stopped in the next crisis.
• A word to the American public. A word to journalism students.

Cut from book for space reasons: I will provide full unpublished chapters here soon:

A Distracted Media: Sidetracked and Hoodwinked

• The American media is so easily distracted that administration officials have to only hint at another story to get reporters to forget what they were covering and run in circles.
• Jessica Lynch knocked Iraq conflict off front pages for weeks; Bush's USS Lincoln speech announcing the end to “major combat action” in Iraq led to glowing reports; Bush's Thanksgiving Day trip to Baghdad led to positive stories and increased poll numbers.
• The press never revisits stories being reported before the diversion and miss an abundance of legislative changes.
• Terror alerts and political timing: low poll numbers, high alerts?
• Terror Management Theory explained. TMT Study shows Bush benefits when the public is reminded of 9/11 and death.
• Public warned al Qaeda plans attack on financial districts as voters gear up for election.
• Bush is re-elected, terror alerts stop.

Appendix: Missed Stories (brief discussions)

• Women's rights disintegrate in Afghanistan and Iraq.
• Depleted uranium.
• Unanswered questions about 9/11.
• Homegrown terrorists (arrest of American men in Texas with weapons of mass destruction don't make headlines).
• Censorship and freedom abroad.
• Our allies now, our enemies in 20 years?: Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
• Security in the U.S.: ports, sky and borders. How are states using homeland security funds?