Political power and the news sourcing of the Syrian conflict

We expect American journalists to be the watchdog of the government and independently inform the public of officials’ actions. The Syrian conflict, with a long history of U.S. involvement, is an excellent scenario to examine this independence. In 2013, President Obama proposed military action and was faced with a nay from a Republican Congress. In 2017 and 2018, President Trump conducted two military strikes without any congressional hearing or authorization, and House and Senate members mostly remained silent or supportive of the policy. The results of this research show that American mainstream newspapers were critical of the administration’s policy of military involvement when there were voices of criticisms coming from the House and Senate, and they sidelined the critical perspectives when the officials in the House and Senate were in consensus with the administration. These results suggest that American journalism is in a crisis of independence, especially regarding foreign policy coverage. If journalists only criticize the administration’s policies when elite officials do so, then the whole mission of journalism in a democratic society is compromised.