Speedy deliberation: Rejecting “1960s programs” as causes of the Los Angeles riots

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Abstract
In modem democracies, public deliberation is often mediated; it largely involves not face‐to‐face debate among citizens, but discussion among public officials, experts, and professional communicators through the mass media. Close examination of a particular instance of public deliberation—the quick rejection of the Bush White House charge that the 1992 Los Angeles riots were caused by failed social programs of the 1960s and 1970s—reveals several features of mediated deliberation that may be rather general: the great speed with which communication can occur; the differing editorial stands of particular print and electronic media; the ways in which editorial positions are reflected in news stories; and the leading roles of such elite newspapers as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. This case also suggests conditions under which the communications power of the presidency are limited, and it illustrates some of the political currents that brought the Bush presidency to an end.

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