Policy Agendas in the Media
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recommended.. .anger was building.. .the demand that something be done was more
common” (NBC 1995b). Echoing a similar fear of outsiders, an unidentified man
said “that’s what we get for letting foreign people into this country” (NBC 1995b).
It was not just reporters and ordinary citizens who expressed these types of
prejudices. State managers like Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating expressed
similar fears when he was shown standing before the wrecked Federal building
and said “they come in...and do something like this” (NBC 1995b). Likewise,
Buck Revell, a former FBI official turned CBS analyst, expressed the sentiment
that our borders are out of control and how “essentially, we allow people to come
here of all types...drug traffickers, organized criminals and terrorists — without
any checks or controls” (CBS 1995b).
Arabs and immigrants were not the only evil others used in the aftermath of
the bombing. After two days of story development, and when the background of
Tim McVeigh become known, the mihtia movement became the evil other de jour.
These anti-government extremists were portrayed as violent, dangerous, and a threat
to the American way of life. Buck Revell discussed the nature of militias and how
they encourage a violent ideology. He declared “if you are willing to kill Federal
officers...If you are willing to commit armed robberies...to assassinate other
individuals.. .then the next step is mass murder or a terrorist-type incident” (CBS
1995c).
Connecting militia criticisms to the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the
issue of gun control, CBS reporter Eric Enberg described NRA members’ anger at
the FBI and ATF as one motive for such terrorist acts. He quotes an NRA board
member as saying, “if you send your jack booted, baby burning bushwhackers to
confiscate my guns, pack them a lunch. It’ll be a danmed long day” (CBS 1995g).
The militia and gun fanatics were vilified in the media. The media vilification
process supported existing relations of power by picturing militia criticisms as
illegitimate. The fact that state agencies may have committed serious violations of
the law at Waco and Ruby Ridge was forgotten for a moment because these critics
seemed so outrageous and not worthy of serious consideration.
Antonio Gramsci (1971) offered an explanation for the processes by which
the evil other is used to justify existing relations of power. His concept of hegemony
helps explain how in the face of real questions of political legitimacy those posing
the questions are dismissed and vilified. The ideology of law and order that is the
foundation for law enforcement agencies like the FBI and ATF can be used against
easily targeted critics like the evil other since they represent a challenge to the
status quo. In media coverage, dominated by state managers, the real question was
not if the government was acting to protect its own interests, but framed as why
they were not doing more to protect America from this criminal element.