Iranian hostage-takers staged media events timed for American broadcast deadlines
Evidence
Throughout the period, it became evident that the Iranians were using the media to what they considered their advantage, a consideration certainly not lost on the networks. Frequently, the students in the embassy would schedule “events” to meet satellite deadlines and nightly news broadcasts in the United States. From time to time Iranian officials indicated that it was their plan thus to turn the American people against the policy of their government. This was a bad miscalculation at the outset. Later on the policy had a peculiar, not altogether unwelcome effect, which was to stimulate the media to a more genuinely investigative attitude. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 227
Categorization
- XREF: Foretells how modern political actors manipulate broadcast calendars and news cycles. — connects to: The 1979 Iran hostage crisis created the demand that birthed a new news format — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 130
- SEED: Angle for an essay: the hostage crisis as early evidence that ‘enemies’ learned to game the American news cycle, a tactic now universal.