Whose Voice Are We Listening To After Domestic Terrorism Events? An Analysis of Presidential Responses

Abstract

Abstract The research analyzed three U.S. Presidents (William Clinton, George W. Bush and Barak Obama), their respective key staffers (Official Voices) and the transcripts from four Sunday morning network news programs (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) commentators following three different domestic terrorist events: 1) the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, 2) the September 11, 2001 terrorist events and 3) the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon. Through secondary analysis of speech and program transcripts, the research answers four questions: 1) What characteristics of charisma exhibited by transformational leaders were evident for each President, when confronted with terrorism on U.S. soil, 2) To what extent was each president’s crafted talked sourced and/or echoed by his Official Voices, 3) How did the President influence media framing by labeling the crisis event, and finally, 4) Did the media framing influence the President to change his use of language, description and label of the crisis event and his short-term response? This research contributes to transformational and charismatic leadership, media framing and terror management theory. The diversity of the three events and the actions of the three Presidents who faced distinctly different domestic terrorism events signals the importance of situational contingencies in determining the appropriate organizational response