Free the Press - and us!

Of 291 sources that appeared on the two shows [ABC Nightline and Jim 
Leherer NewsHour] during the [25 March - 8 April] study period, 
only 24--or 8 percent--were critics of the NATO airstrikes. Critics were
10 percent of sources on the NewsHour, and only 5 percent on Nightline.
Only four critics appeared live as interview guests on the shows, 6
percent of all discussion guests. Just one critic appeared as a
guest on Nightline during the entire two-week time period. 

The largest single source group, 45 percent, was composed of current or
former U.S. government and military officials, NATO representatives and 
NATO troops. 

On Nightline, this group accounted for a majority of sources (55 percent),
while providing a substantial 39 percent on the NewsHour. It also provided
the largest percentage of live  interviewees: 50 percent on Nightline (six
of 12) and 42 percent on the NewsHour (24 of 57). (Numerous U.S. aviators who appeared
on Nightline's 3/29/99 edition were left out of the study, because their
identities could not be distinguished.) 

Overall, the most commonly cited individuals from this group were
President Bill Clinton (14 cites), State Department
spokesperson James Rubin (11) and NATO spokesperson David Wilby (10). Of
course, these sources were uniformly supportive of NATO's actions. A quote
from the NewsHour's Margaret Warner (3/31/99) reveals the homogeneity of
a typical source pool: "We get four perspectives now on NATO's mission and
options from four retired military leaders." 


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                   ANDRE GUNDER FRANK
250 Kensington Ave - Apt 608     Tel: 1-514-933 2539    
Westmount/Montreal PQ/QC         Fax: 1-514-933 6445 
Canada H3Z 2G8              e-mail:agfrank@chass.utoronto.ca 

My Personal/Professional Home Page> http://www.whc.neu.edu/gunder.html
My NATO/Kosovo Page> http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/agfrank/nato_kosovo/       
My professional/personal conclusion is the same as Pogo's - 
            We have met the enemy, and it is US 
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