Why do prestigious Western newspapers and broadcasting organizations fail in the coverage of sociopolitical conflict? Are media bungles in the last decade – such as in Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, the West Bank, Eastern Europe, the Gulf War and other cases1 – isolated instances? Do they indicate the evolution of a consistent pattern? The coverage of the Romanian revolution and the Gulf War in the Western media is used here for a comparative examination of these questions. Conclusions of a detailed analysis of the Romanian case are applied to the coverage of the Gulf War, and theoretical implications are discussed.

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