Word: libya
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...what seemed at the time to be a significant scoop, the Wall Street Journal last Aug. 25 carried a story that began, "The U.S. and Libya are on a collision course again, and the Reagan Administration is preparing to teach the mercurial Libyan leader another lesson." White House Spokesman Larry Speakes described the report as "unauthorized but highly authoritative." That was enough to send U.S. news organizations scrambling after a yarn that promised to involve terrorist plots and possible U.S. retaliation...
...Administration's ill-conceived plot--disseminating false reports predicting a second confrontation between the U.S. and Libya--undermined Reagan's credibility with the American public and other nations, strengthened Khaddafy rather than weakening him and made a mockery of the communication process between the White House and the media...
...hold on. Who is responsible for splashing the stories all over the nation's newspapers? Who hyped the reports and led many Americans to believe that the U.S. and Libya were on a "collision course"? The media of course. The press turned false information into front-page news...
...nation's most respected newspapers, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post ran extensive coverage in late August and early September, leading to a mild frenzy over the possibility of further U.S. agression against Libya. On August 25, the Journal featured a front page story that detailed renewed U.S. military maneuvers geared toward a possible second strike against Khaddafy. The Post featured a series of articles reporting that the U.S. had strong evidence that Khaddafy was again planning terrorist activities...
Especially in a sensitive issue like U.S. relations with Libya--and one out of which Reagan has gotten a lot of propaganda mileage--careful checking of sources, or holding off on the front-page headlines for stronger evidence is crucial to maintaining a credible press. As we all learned in high school, the press is supposed to be a "watchdog" of government, but it isn't if it wags its tail and licks Reagan's face every time he throws it a bone...