ABSTRACT
Seldom has the stylized confrontation between politicians and journalists been rendered in as pure a form as the spectacle that confronted the seventeen million viewers of the “CBS Evening News” on Monday, January 23, 1988. The exchange between Bush and Rather was preceded by a five-minute background report that focused on Bush’s role in the Iran-Contra controversy. One interesting way of thinking about how and why strategic political communication can be so effective is, in fact, suggested by recent advances in neurophysiology, the study of the structure and function of the brain. Hemispheric lateralization, however, is nothing quite so sinister or so frightening. What it means, in essence, is that the human brain seems to be divided into two sides—conveniently known as the left and the right—which differ systematically in their functions. The thrust of strategic political communication efforts in recent years has been to assure that for most people politics is and remains a right-brain-centered activity.
