Inside the echo chamber: Television news coverage of the CIA drone program

Broadcast and cable television news coverage of the CIA's drone program from 2002 through 2013 is reviewed critically. Corporate ownership is examined to determine whether the need to generate profits has an influence on news coverage of the issue. This thesis looked specifically at the quality of the coverage of the legal and ethical issues of the CIA drone program and whether the coverage looked at all facets of the controversial aspects of the program. To carry out this analysis, the database LexisNexis was utilized to search news transcripts for this time frame using both the search terms "unmanned military aircraft" and "cia AND drones". These transcripts were then examined to determine which qualified as a discussion of the issues. Broadcast and cable news were then compared in light of the political economic framework of the propaganda model to determine whether corporate ownership has an influence over news coverage, particularly when it comes to news stories on national security issues that bring together powerful defense and government interests. This thesis finds that coverage of the drone program only becomes a serious issue when the policymakers in Washington begin to become divided on the issue, suggesting that rather than facilitating a truly democratic debate with a variety of perspectives, television news follows a discourse set by the political and economic elite. This was the same even for publicly-owned PBS, who, in the midst of the most drone program coverage, produced a drone documentary funded by drone manufacturer Lockheed Martin and did not present a significantly different range of views or more critical coverage of the program than cable news outlets.