propaganda model composed of a number of news filters, which
expose, for example, the way The New York Times took on the
government’s official position and thus promoted militarism and the
Vietnam War. This is a seminal work for anyone interested in critical
language studies.
7 There is a class of popular newspapers which takes a markedly
different approach, which seems to be: anything that will sell a paper,
no matter how outrageous or misleading, goes up front and center. The
rest of this chapter excludes discussion of tabloids.
8 For example, in December 2005, Congress passed the Defense
Authorization Act which granted exemption from the Freedom of
Information Act to the Pentagon and the Department of Defense. This
story was absent from almost all broadcast and newspaper news
reports, despite its relevance to the freedom of the press.
9 See, for example, Jane Hill’s analysis of the incident that led to former
Senator Trent Lott’s resignation as Majority Leader of the Senate, in
which the mainstream media attempted to ignore an unambiguously
racist statement until it was brought to public attention by prominent
bloggers.
10 Fox News and MSNBC are perhaps the most openly partisan television
news outlets. This is not to say that all media representatives from
other outlets were strictly objective; there is plenty of evidence to
show that this is not the case.
11 When a politician tries and fails to style shift to be more in line with
the audience, the media can be merciless. Such an event happened
during the 2008 campaign, when Hillary Clinton allegedly attempted
to sound African American or Southern when addressing a primarily
African American audience in Selma, Alabama. See Media Matters for
America (http://mediamatters.org/research/200709130001).
12 See Heflick and Goldenberg (2009) on the objectification of Sarah
Palin.
13 Overt sexism in the media was not restricted to male commentators:
“Kristan, we’ve talked this morning about whether a mother of five
can handle being the vice president. Who looks after the kids when
she’s working? Do you know?” (Maggie Rodriguez, CBS, Early Show).
Nor was Palin the only woman to experience sexism – both overt and
covert – in the 2008 election cycle. Such incidents (as in the example
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