Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP7684
Authors: Nancy Qian; David Yanagizawa
Abstract: Abstract This paper investigates the extent to which strategic objectives of the U.S. government influenced news coverage during the Cold War. We establish two relationships: 1) strategic objectives of the U.S. government cause the State Department to under-report human rights violations of strategic allies; and 2) these objectives reduce news coverage of human rights abuses for strategic allies in six U.S. national newspapers. To establish causality, we exploit plausibly exogenous variation in a country's strategic value to the U.S. from the interaction of its political alliance to the U.S. and membership on the United Nations Security Council. In addition to the main results, we are able to provide qualitative evidence and indirect quantitative evidence to shed light on the mechanisms underlying the reduced form effects.
Keywords: Development; Media; Political Economy
JEL Codes: P16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| strategic objectives of the US government (L21) | underreporting of human rights violations by the State Department (O17) |
| strategic objectives of the US government (L21) | reduced news coverage of human rights abuses in US newspapers (P14) |
| alliance with the US and UNSC membership (F53) | underreporting of human rights violations by the State Department (O17) |
| alliance with the US and UNSC membership (F53) | reduced news coverage of human rights abuses in US newspapers (P14) |