The Kingmakers: How the Media Threatens Our Security and Our Democracy

摘要

Former U.S. Senator and recent presidential candidate Mike Gravel, along with Columbia University professor David Eisenbach (the former communications director for Gravel's presidential campaign) analyze mainstream media coverage of recent major events, including 9/11, the Iraq War, and the 2008 presidential primary. The authors argue that the collective failure of U.S. news outlets to accurately report on world events and world leaders ultimately poses a threat to democracy.rnThere is a systematic flaw in how news is generated; it is the need to fit hard facts into a narrative framework and to keep the story consistent. "Once a storyline gets adopted, the media becomes an echo chamber repeating the same inaccurate and dangerous claims over and over." The media's reluctance to revise a storyline once they commit to it indicates a dangerous inability to admit being wrong.