This book shows how the U.S. corporate media enabled the Bush administration's policy and raises serious questions concerning the role of the media in a democracy-and the need for the media to play more critical and democratic roles in debating issues of war and peace and national security.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Political legitimacy, cultural leadership, and public action / Lee Artz -- Banal militarism and the culture of war / Tanja Thomas and Fabian Virchow -- National security strategy and the ideology of preventive war / Elisia L. Cohen -- Foreign policy, public diplomacy, and public relations : selling America to the world / Sue Curry Jansen -- The problem with patriotism : steps toward the redemption of American journalism and democracy / Robert Jensen -- Culture as persuasion : metaphor as weapon / William B. Hart II and Fran Hassencahl -- The invisible ally : marketing Australia's war in Iraq / Andrew Jakubowicz and Liz Jacka -- The construction of Arabs as enemies : post-9/11 discourse of George W. Bush / Debra Merskin -- The political rhetoric of sacrifice and heroism and U.S. military intervention / Timothy Cole -- "The great American bubble :" Fox News channel, the "mirage" of objectivity and the isolation of American public opinion / Adel Iskandar -- Pre-emptive strikes on the cultural front : big radio, the Dixie Chicks, and homeland insecurity / Matthew A. Killmeier -- The mass media, politics, and warfare / Christian Fuchs -- Might makes right : news reportage as discursive weapon in the war in Iraq / Michael Gasher -- Journalists embedded in culture : war stories as political strategy / Heinz Brandenburg -- The power of public reporting : the independent media center's challenge to corporate media / Lisa Brooten.