ABSTRACT
In the United States, as in Britain, reporters were kept in the dark or led down the garden path by government officials. Journalists in the United States enjoyed their usual ease of access to high-ranking officials, and in fact were regarded as makeshift mediators between Iran and America when normal diplomatic channels failed. This chapter considers the interaction between press and government in the United States dining the Iranian hostage crisis. News management during the Iranian crisis was relatively easy because national upheavals awaken journalists’ patriotic sentiments. As loyal citizens, reporters are reluctant to risk damaging their country’s interests. In addition, situations involving hostages are treated with particular sensitivity by the media in order to avoid angering the captors. Thus the press initially was highly receptive to requests by the United States government to exercise caution in its coverage of the Iranian hostage crisis.
