Manufacturing Consent_ The Political Economy of the Mass Media - Edward S. Herman [121]
Agca’s naming of the Bulgarians was the key fact that generated news coverage, providing the basis for reiterated details about the Bulgarians, explanations of the Bulgarian (and Soviet) motive, and speculation about the political implications of the charges, if confirmed. A major characteristic of these news reports was their sheer superficiality, with the charges never seriously examined but merely regurgitated and elaborated with odd facts and opinion, and with no departures from the SHK frame (and no hints of the possible relevance of an alternative frame). The charges constituted a form of vindication of the SHK model if taken at face value and presented superficially—i.e., if the media presentations never considered political convenience, prison conditions, possible deals, plausible deniability, etc. And this procedure—a reiteration of Agca claims, supplemented by extremely superficial pro-plot speculation—was the principal modality by which the mass media accepted and pushed the propaganda line.
Newsweek provides a prototype of news coverage within the SHK framework in its article of January 3, 1983, “The Plot to Kill Pope John Paul II.” The Bulgarian-Soviet motive as portrayed by SHK is reiterated through quotes from congenial sources— “a precautionary and alternative solution to the invasion of Poland”—while nobody is quoted discussing costs and benefits, the nature of the Soviet leadership, or Western benefits from Agca’s confession.25 In fact, Newsweek suggests that this charging of the Soviet bloc with the assassination attempt is a painful embarrassment to Western governments (parroting the SHK line on this point). Newsweek nowhere discusses the seventeen-month lag in Agca’s confession or his prison conditions, nor does it report in this (or any later) article the claims and information noted in the London Sunday Times and the Italian press about inducements or coercive threats that might have been applied to Agca while in custody.
Agca’s evidence is given credibility by Newsweek through several devices: repeating his claims several times as the core of the story; stressing in two separate sequences investigative judge Martella’s alleged honesty, integrity, conscientiousness, etc.; quoting from Italian officials who say they “have the evidence” that “Agca operated in close contact with the Bulgarians”; asserting that “all the evidence suggests” that Agca is “not crazy.” But most important is the previously mentioned refusal to discuss the premises of the SHK framework or to use an alternative frame.
Newsweek swallows intact a series of SHK ideological assumptions, such as that “investigators [read “Paul Henze”] now think” Agca was probably using the Gray Wolves as a cover; Bulgaria and the Soviet Union have long been trying “to destabilize Turkey through terrorism” (quoting Henze directly); in Sofia, Agca’s presence “must have come to the attention of the Bulgarian secret police” (duplicating the frequent SHK error of forgetting their claim that Agca had already been recruited for the papal assassination attempt in Turkey, as well as erroneously assuming that the Bulgarian secret police can easily identify Turks passing through their country). Newsweek states as established fact that “Agca had help from a huge set of Bulgarians,” although it provides no evidence for this except assertions by Agca, Italian officials, and Paul Henze. It reports Agca’s numerous transactions with Bulgarians in Rome without mentioning the problem of plausible deniability and without