Magazines silenced opposition voices after Sept. 11

Ya don't say!:

Journalists covering the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and their aftermath were unwittingly complicit to government and military communication strategies to rally public support, according to findings by UW researchers.

A content analysis of news coverage in the five issues of Newsweek and Time published immediately after the attacks found that the newsmagazines minimized voices of opposition and instead focused on American unity, highlighted the importance of core American values, shifted blame away from the U.S., emphasized the U.S. role as the only superpower on the international stage, and demonized the enemy...

Further, they found that while government and military officials used this nationalistic language more than people in other segments of society, journalists’ reports closely mirrored those comments and, relatively speaking, ignored the comments of nongovernment opinion leaders — interest group leaders, think-tank researchers and university professors — who were more apt to offer critical analysis...