The U.S. Military in the Print News Media

“Few volumes are able to succinctly articulate the entrenchment of the military-industrial complex within the U.S. media landscape. Peterson not only accomplishes that with nuance and sophistication, his ability to focus on the discursive power of militarization in the legacy print establishments across three countries is truly exemplary. This book is essential reading to unpack how and why print media coverage of the U.S. military contributes to the continuation of the status quo and how that informs the country’s military engagements, investments, agreements, and policies both within the country and worldwide. Despite catering to an academic audience, this book should be required reading in newsrooms more so than classrooms.” —Adel Iskandar, Associate Professor of Global Communication, and Director, Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies (CCMS) “Through a critical analysis of 100 years of U.S. newspapers, Luke Peterson shows how the media perpetuates empire by deceiving the public about the morality of U.S. wars, the military, and the government itself. In the tradition of Edward Said and Noam Chomsky, Peterson uncovers the role of the media in manufacturing consent for empire by analyzing the coverage of U.S. military interventions from 1898 to 2003. It is a politically urgent, empirically grounded, myth-busting analysis.” —Andy Clarno, University of Illinois at Chicago “Peterson deftly strips away the façade of dominant discourses that support the media’s coverage of American military interventions to demonstrate how such narratives help shape the public consciousness of war and warfare. Robust in scale and scope, Peterson’s contribution is required reading for anyone interested in the military-media nexus.” —James A. Tyner, Professor of Geography, Kent State University The U.S. Military in the Print News Media is an outstanding volume that deals with one of the most relevant topics of our time: American hyper-militarism. Exceptionally well-written and researched, Peterson chronicles the extent to which the American news media of the 20th century failed to inform the American people, by fair and objective reporting, the causes of wars and the conduct of the U.S. military when waging wars.—Armed Forces & Society