Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2009

Publication Title

Communication, Culture & Critique

First Page

83

Last Page

109

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-9137.2008.01030.x

Additional Publication URL

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1753-9137.2008.01030.x/abstract

Abstract

There were 7 assassination attempts on U.S. presidents between 1973 and 2001. In this article, we critically examine coverage of each attack in The New York Times and The Washington Post, describing how the coverage employs therapeutic discourse frames that position the president as vulnerable and portray the attackers as lonely and demented outsiders. Noticing contradictions in this pattern, we also identify counterframes, including those acknowledging the political motivations of the assassins, the diminished public sphere that is a context for those actions, and the contradictions in a legal system that denies the insanity pleas of those framed so extensively as mentally ill. Political science, psychology, and law enforcement researchers have recognized that assassination attempts are often driven by rational political and economic concerns. Our analysis thus points to the need for further research exploring therapeutic framing techniques of other instances of political violence that may discourage publics from thinking critically about protest, violence, and tragedy in the United States.

Rights

‘This is a peer reviewed version of the following article:

Hoerl, K.E., Cloud, D.L, and Jarvis, S.E. (2009) Deranged loners and demented outsiders? Therapeutic news frams of Presidential Assassination attempts, 1973-2001. Communication, Culture & Critique, 2(1), 83-109

,

which has been published in final form at: 10.1111/j.1753-9137.2008.01030.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving'.

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