Dorman, William A. and Farhang, Mansour. The U.S. Press and Iran: Foreign
Policy and the Journalism of Deference. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1987. 272 pages.
William Dorman is a journalism professor at California State University
in Sacramento, and Mansour Farhang is a professor of politics at Bennington
College in Vermont. Farhang was Khomeini's first ambassador to the U.N., but
resigned when Khomeini refused to release the American hostages. This book
is a case study of the American media's coverage of events in Iran from
1951-1978. For those who still needed convincing, it shows that public
knowledge and debate is shaped by the major media to serve the needs of U.S.
foreign policy. Until 1978, major U.S. journalists were so busy drooling
over the lavish lifestyle of the generous shah and the lovely empress, that
the revolution came as a complete surprise. Only then did they grudgingly
dust off their history books and acknowledge the CIA's role in installing
the shah in 1953.
While it's true that every study of major U.S. journalists shows them
leaning toward liberalism, the authors recognize what the pundits and
pollsters haven't yet discovered, namely that this counts for zero: "In
short, at least historically, American liberals were (and are) supportive
of U.S. foreign policy during the cold war. The political right's paranoia
or misreading of history does not alter this truth." (p.219)
ISBN 0-520-05970-0
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