Some journalists warned that hostage-obsession damaged US interests and dismissed power fantasies

Evidence

There were some journalists, however, who were genuinely reflective. H. D. S. Greenway acknowledged in the Boston Globe on January 21 that “there was damage done to U.S. interests by the American obsession with the hostage crisis to the exclusion of other, pressing issues,” but he was able to arrive at one clear conclusion: “The realities of a pluralistic world will not change and the new Administration will be bound by the practical limits of power in the late 20th century.” — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 92