Government distortion in independently owned media: Evidence from US Cold War news coverage of human rights.” NBER Working Paper w15738

This study provides evidence of government distortion of news coverage amongst indepen-dently owned media outlets in a democratic regime. It documents that U.S. news coverage of human rights abuses committed by foreign governments during the Cold War was associated with membership on the United Nations Security Council and the degree of political alliance between the foreign country and the United States. For countries that are not allied with the United States, coverage increases with membership; for countries that are strongly allied with the United States, coverage decreases with membership. We develop a simple framework that is motivated by Besley and Prat (2006), Prat and Stromberg (2005, 2011) and Stromberg (1999, 2004a, 2004b) to interpret the results. We interpret the empirical findings as consistent with U.S. news coverage being influenced by both U.S. government-driven distortions and reader demand. (JEL: P16, N4; Keywords: Political Economy, Media) ∗This paper supersedes the previous version entitled, “Watchdog and Lapdog...”. We are indebted to Matthe