The Captive Press: Foreign Policy Crises and the First Amendment

by Ted Galen Carpenter

"No sooner had the State Department notified me that I couldn't see World War II era documents about Poland for my biography of Pope John II because 'national security' was at stake, than Ted Galen Carpenter's book arrived, like aspirin for a headache-or therapy for a cancer. The Captive Press is both easy to read and massively documented. The Clinton administration has promised to stop concealing our politics and our history, and maybe Carpenter's engrossing and thorough case will make the government-for once-live up to its word."

--Jonathan Kwitny
Author, Endless Enemies
and The Crimes of Patriots

There is an inherent tension between the press freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment and a global interventionist foreign policy that places a premium on secrecy, rapid execution, and lack of public dissent, writes Ted Galen Carpenter in The Captive Press: Foreign Policy Crises and the First Amendment, just published by the Cato Institute. Carpenter, director of foreign policy studies at the Institute and the author or editor of numerous books on defense and foreign policy issues, contends that a high priority of the national security bureaucracy is to manipulate or obstruct the news media, thereby thwarting critical coverage of military and foreign policy initiatives.

The government's restrictions on the press during the Persian Gulf War, and the outright exclusion of journalists during the most important stages of the Grenada and Panama invasions, represent especially flagrant examples of the government's "iron fist" tactics, according to Carpenter. Concerted campaigns to impugn the patriotism and integrity of journalists who file stories critical of Washington's foreign policy have also been waged with disturbing frequency.

Techniques of Manipulation and Intimidation


Carpenter emphasizes, however, that such crude forms of coercion by the national security bureaucracy are not the only source of danger to a vigorous, independent press. An equally serious threat is posed by the government's abuse of the secrecy system to control the flow of information and prevent disclosures that might cast doubt on the wisdom or morality of current policy. Frequently, overclassification is combined with coercive strategies, most notably threats to prosecute both those who leak classified information and those who publish such information for violating espionage statutes.

Most insidious and corrosive of all, Carpenter contends, is the attempt by officials to entice journalists to be members of the foreign policy team rather than play their proper role as skeptical monitors of government conduct. All too often, members of the media have succumbed to such appeals and have become little more than cheerleaders for dubious foreign policy initiatives. That was clearly the case during the Gulf war and, until disaster struck and produced sober second thoughts, the intervention in Somalia.

Government efforts to either convert the press into a conduit for propaganda or silence critics were once confined to "emergency" situations in which the nation was battling for survival-most notably during the two world wars. In the course of the Cold War, however, such policies became the norm during minor conflicts and even during periods of peace. Those habits of manipulation and intimidation have continued in the post-Cold War period, with alarming implications for the vitality of the First Amendment.

Restoring the Health of Press Freedoms


Carpenter argues that although freedom of the press has not been killed in action during the many international crises of the 20th century, it has been seriously wounded. One of most important tasks of the post-Cold War era is to restore it to health.

Accomplishing that goal will require reforms to prevent misuse of the classification system and to lift the threat of espionage prosecutions of those who dare to reveal government misconduct in foreign affairs. Equally important, Carpenter insists, is the adoption of a new, less interventionist U.S. foreign policy. That step is essential to end the garrison state mentality that has dominated the country for the past half century and continues to endanger press freedoms.

1995/315pp./$24.95 cloth ISBN: 1-882577-22-1/$14.95 ISBN: 1-882577-23-X

[ Ordering Information | Book Index | Publications | Home ]