Going Public, Crisis after Crisis: The Bush Administration and the Press from September 11 to Saddam

Abstract

Political leaders craft public communications in a strategic manner and attempt to use mass media as a political resource. With this in mind, we argue that during summer and autumn 2002 President George W. Bush extended the September 11 crisis through emphasis in public communications on internal "homeland" security and an external "war on terror"—discourses into which Iraq was carefully inserted over time. These strategic communications allowed the president to significantly shape U.S. news coverage, helped Republicans gain control of Congress, and propelled the United States toward war with Iraq. Our analysis shows that Bush's emphasis on three themes in combination with a particular sequence of discourse facilitated a subtle shift from a focus solely on homeland security legislation to one that emphasized the dangers of Saddam Hussein's Iraq without substantive changes in the accompanying arguments. Further, analysis of U.S. news coverage during the same dates indicates that news media often followed the president's messages about these topics.

“Shaping history” or “Riding the wave”?: President Bush's influence on the public opinion of terrorism, homeland security, & crime

“…He also spoke to the United Nations General Assembly on September 12, 2002, in which he threatened that he would act alone against Iraq if necessary. Throughout his term, Bush made consistent references to the attacks that continued to remind Americans of the attacks, and raise fears of future attacks (John et al, 2007). Bush often portrayed the world as a fearful and evil place, but made it clear that terrorism could be overcome with American strength and courage.…”

“…It has been shown that presidents can exert substantial control over political environments (John et al, 2007). Presidents often use their office to publicize issues (Canes-Wrone, 2001) and to increase popular support for their policy proposals (Barrett, 2005(Barrett, , 2007Edwards & Wood, 1999;Kernell, 1997;Mayhew, 1974;Young & Perkins, 2005).…”

“…At the time, Bush had the nation's full attention and support, and he was able to lay the groundwork for a future war with Iraq (John et al, 2007). Bush's rhetoric changed after the attacks to emphasize a heightened threat perception and a sense of danger (Leffler, 2004).…”

The path to war: Exploring a second-level agenda-building analysis examining the relationship among the media, the public and the president

“…Although, it appears that sources provide subsidies to the media in order to gain time or space, (Berkowitz and Adams, 1990), their ultimate goal of agenda-building is not just to influence the mass media but also to create a favorable public opinion and public agenda (Turk, 1985). John et al (2007), for example, suggested that after 9/11, former President Bush carefully chose strategies to set an agenda for public discourse and that strategic communication allowed him to dominate the US news content, mobilizing the nation toward a war with Iraq. They found that the president's rhetoric evolved from focusing on homeland security legislation to highlighting the danger of Saddam Hussein, and the news media closely followed the president's messages.…”

George W. Bush, Television News, and Rationales for the Iraq War

“…Domke and colleagues' notion of the ''echoing press'' (e.g., Coe, Domke, Graham, John, & Pickard, 2004;Domke, 2004;Domke, Graham, Coe, John, & Coopman, 2006;John, Domke, Coe, & Graham, 2007) is the theoretical perspective most relevant to this possibility. In a series of studies, these researchers focused on the rhetorical themes present in President Bush's post-9/11 discourse and in news coverage, finding that the president exerted considerable control over the press.…”