The Culture of Fear (40 page)

39
John Schwartz, “An Outbreak of Medical Myths,”
Washington Post
National Edition, 22 May 1995, p. 38.

40
Richard Preston,
The Hot Zone
(New York: Random House, 1994); Malcolm Gladwell, “The Plague Year,”
New Republic,
17 July 1995, p. 40.

41
Erik Larson, “A False Crisis: How Workplace Violence Became a Hot Issue,
Wall StreetJournal,
13 October 1994, pp. A1, 8; Cynthia Crossen, “Fright By the Numbers,”
Wall StreetJournal,
11 April 1996, pp. B1, 8. See also G. Pascal Zachary, ‘Junk History,”
Wall Street Journal,
19 September 1997, pp. A1, 6.

42
On variable definitions of obesity see also Werner Cahnman, “The Stigma of Obesity,”
Sociological Quarterly
9 (1968): 283-99; Susan Bordo,
Unbearable Weight
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Joan Chrisler, “Politics and Women’s Weight,”
Feminism and Psychology
6 (1996): 181-84.

43
Mary Douglas and Aaron Wildavsky,
Risk and Culture
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), see esp. pp. 6-9; Mary Douglas,
Risk and Blame
(London: Routledge, 1992). See also Mary Douglas,
Purity and Danger
(New York: Praeger, 1966). Asbestos and schools: Peter Cary, “The Asbestos Panic Attack,”
U
.
S
.
News & World Report,
20 February 1995, pp. 61-64; Children’s Defense Fund, “State of America’s Children.”

44
See Marina Warner, “Peroxide Mug-shot,”
London Review of Books,
1 January 1998, pp. 10—11.

45
Nathan and Snedeker,
Satan’s Silence
(quote from p. 240). See also David Bromley, “Satanism: The New Cult Scare,” in James Richardson et al., eds.,
The Satanism Scare
(Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991), pp. 49-71.

46
Of girls ages fifteen to seventeen who gave birth, fewer than one in ten were unmarried and had been made pregnant by men at least five years older. See Steven Holmes, “It’s Awful, It’s Terrible, It’s ... Never Mind,”
New York Times,
6 July 1997, p. E3.

47
CNN, “Crossfire,” 27 August 1995 (contains Huffington quote); Ruth Conniff, “Warning: Feminism Is Hazardous to Your Health,”
Progressive,
April 1997, pp. 33-36 (contains Sommers quote). See also Susan Faludi,
Backlash
(New York: Crown, 1991); Deborah Rhode, “Media Images, Feminist Issues,”
Signs
20 (1995): 685-710; Paula Span, “Did Feminists Forget the Most Crucial Issues?”
Los Angeles Times,
28 November 1996, p. E8.

48
See Katha Pollitt, “Subject to Debate,”
Nation,
26 December 1994, p. 788, and idem, 20 November 1995, p. 600.

49
Henry Nelson Coleridge, ed.,
Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(London: J. Murray, 1935), entry for 5 October 1830. Nixon quote cited in William Safire,
Before the Fall
(New York: Doubleday, 1975), Prologue.

1
Hitchcock quoted in Leslie Halliwell,
Halliwell’s Film Companion
(New York: HarperCollins, 1995). ABC, “20/20,” 5 July 1996.

2
“Oprah,” 5 September 1997; Jerry Adler et al., “Road Rage,”
Newsweek,
2 June 1997. See also CBS, “This Morning,” 4 June 1998.

3
Andrew Ferguson, “Road Rage,”
Time,
12 January 1997, pp. 64-68; Kim Murphy, “Driven to Extremes in the Northwest,”
Los Angeles Times,
11 January 1998, pp. A1, 14; Maria Puente, “Students Get Lesson in ‘Road Rage’,”
USA Today,
16 October 1997, p. A3; Murphy, “Driven to Extremes.”

4
Kathy Free, “Make Their Day,”
People Weekly,
1 September 1997, pp. 59-60. Additional details on the AAA numbers: Jason Vest et al., “Road Rage,”
U.S. News & World Report,
2 June 1997, pp. 24-30. Quote from Murphy, “Driven to Extremes.”

5
Patrick O’Driscoll, “In Hot Pursuit of Road Rage,”
USA Today,
9 December 1997, p. A3. On the amount of coverage see also Jane Hall, “Newsmagazines Spread Across TV’s Table,”
Los Angeles Times,
30 September 1997, p. F5.

6
David Levy,
Tools of Critical Thinking
(Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1997), ch. 22.

7
Incident: KTLA “News at 10,” 14 January 1998; Solomon Moore and Scott Glover, “‘Road Rage’-type Crash Kills 2,”
Los Angeles Times,
15 January 1998, pp. B 1, 5.

8
Robert Ourlain, “Freeway Chase Ends in Slaying,”
Los Angeles Times,
19 January 1998, p. A1; Scott Glover and Geoff Boucher, “Corrections’ Officer’s Husband Gives Account of Slaying,”
Los Angeles Times,
20 January 1998, pp. A3, 10; KTLA, “News at 10,” 27 January 1998; Scott Glover and Bonnie Hayes, “Slain Guard’s Spouse Decries Police Actions,”
Los Angeles Times,
28 January 1998, p. B1.

9
ABC, “20/20,” 5 July 1996.

10
NPR, “Morning Edition,” 24 July 1997.

11
O‘Driscoll, “In Hot Pursuit of Road Rage.”

12
For an example of calls for more police see Tustin Amole, “Aurora Police Crack Down on Road Rage,”
Rocky Mountain News,
27 January 1998 (Internet edition). General information on Nerenberg from O’Driscoll, “In Hot Pursuit of Road Rage,” his Web site, and Joe Sharkey, “You’re Not Bad, You’re Sick. It’s in the Book,”
New York Times,
28 September 1997, pp. N1, 5. Quotes from Free, “Make Their Day”; ABC “World News Tonight,” 17 July 1997; Puente, “Students Get Lesson in ‘Road Rage”’; Adler et al., “Road Rage.”

13
Quote from Free, “Make Their Day.”

14
“Oprah,” 5 September 1997.

15
CNN, “CNN Today,” 28 August 1997; Vest et al., “Road Rage.”

16
Ralph Hingson, “Prevention of Drinking and Driving,”
Alcohol Health and Research World 20
(1996): 219—26; Matthew Wald, “A Fading Drumbeat Against Drunken Driving,”
New
York Times, 15 December 1996, p. D5; Jay Winsten, “Promoting Designated Drivers,”
American Journal of Preventive Medicine
10 (May 1994): 11-14. On my selection and use of statistics see note 2 in the Introduction.

17
Statistics: Hingson, “Prevention of Drinking and Driving”; Matthew Wald, “Safety Group Reports Rise in Fatalities on Highways,”
New York Times,
10 October 1996, p. A17. Survey: Vest et al., “Road Rage.” Quote: Don Russell, “Get Out of the Way, Jerk,”
Philadelphia Daily News
(online edition), 7 August 1997. See also Sally Steenland, “Road Rage,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
(online edition), 7 August 1997.

18
Quote from O‘Driscoll, “In Hot Pursuit of Road Rage.”

19
Dan McGraw, “A Texas Town Heals Its Wounds,”
U
.
S
.
News & World Report,
26 October 1998, pp. 24—25; Steve Lopez, “To Be Young and Gay in Wyoming,”
Time,
26 October 1998, pp. 38-40.

20
Quotes from John Wilson,
TheMyth of Political Correctness
(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995), pp. 7, 23; Brian Siano, “The Great Political Correctness Conspiracy Hoax,”
Skeptic
4
,
no. 3 (1996): 52-61.

21
“Excerpts from President’s Speech to University of Michigan Graduates,”
New York Times,
5 May 1991, p. 32. On incivility in a diverse society see Rebecca Alpert, “Coming Out of the Closet as Politically Correct,”
Tikkun
(March 1996): 61-63.

22
See Phil Ryan, “On Political Correctness,”
Rationality and Society
8 (1996): 353-57.

23
Siano, “Conspiracy Hoax,” p. 54; Wilson,
Myth of Political Correctness,
pp. 20-21.

24
Alice Jardine, “Illiberal Reporting,” in C. Newfield and R. Strickland, eds.,
After Political Correctness
(Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995), pp. 128—37.

25
Siano, “Conspiracy Hoax,” p. 54; Wilson,
Myth of Political Correctness,
pp. 20—21; Jardine, “Illiberal Reporting.”

26
Paul Craig Roberts, “Decline and Fall of the White Male,”
San Francisco Examiner,
9 January 1996, p. A13.

27
Studies: “The Chilly Classroom Climate,” report by the National Association for Women in Education, 22 February 1996; Siano, “Conspiracy Hoax”; Jack Levin and Jack McDevitt, “The Research Needed to Understand Hate Crime,”
Chronicle ofHigher Education
4 August 1995, p. B1; Wilson,
Myth of Political Correctness,
esp. pp. 43—49 and
ch. 6; Verta Taylor and Nicole Raeburn, “Identity Politics as High-Risk Activism,”
Social Problems
42 (1995): 252-73. See also Michael Warner, ed.,
Fear of a Queer Planet
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993); John Davidson, “The Tenure Trap,”
Working Woman
(June 1997): 36-37.

28
Linda Chavez, “‘Dynamic’ Newest Banned Word,”
USA Today,
10 January 1996, p. A11. Information about the incident: Courtney Leatherman, “Cal State Advertisement Spurs Debate over ‘Dynamic’ Professors,”
Chronicle of Higher Education,
5 January 1996, p. A17; letter to the editor from Zaida Giraldo (Director of Affirmative Action at California State),
Chronicle of Higher Education,
16 February 1996, p. B4.

29
Debra Saunders, “Dynamic Profs Need Not Apply,”
San Francisco Chronicle,
10 January 1996, p. A19; Roberts, “Decline and Fall.”

30
George Will, “Sensitivity Cops on the Trail of the ‘D’ Word,”
Washington Post,
11 January 1996, p. A23; John Leo, “PC Crimes and Misdemeanors,”
U.S.News & World
Report, 12 February 1996, p. 18.

31
Statistics from Nexis searches conducted by the author.

32
Ellen Messer-Davidow, “Manufacturing the Attack on Liberalized Higher Education,” in Newfield and Strickland, eds.,
After Political Correctness,
pp. 38-78; Wilson,
Myth of Political Correctness,
pp. 26-30; Siano, “Conspiracy Hoax”; Paul Pekin, “Schoolhouse Crock,”
Extra,
January 1998, pp. 9-10.

33
Siano, “Conspiracy Hoax.”

34
Letter from Dean Robert Lawton,
USA Today,
21 March 1996, p. A10. “Dumbing down” appears in Rick Telander, “College Sports Grow in Stature as Shakespeare Takes a Hike,”
Chicago Sun-Times,
22 March 1996, p. 131.

35
John Wilson, “Come Not to Bury Shakespeare,”
Chronicle of Higher Education,
14 February 1997, p. B6. See also Maureen Dowd, “A Winter’s Tale,”
New
York Times, 28 December 1995, p. A21.

36
Censorship in the schools: Annie Gowen, “Maryland Schools Remove Two Black-Authored Books,”
Los Angeles Times,
11 January 1998, p. A6; see also Pekin, “Schoolhouse Crock”; Katha Pollitt, “Sweet Swan of Avon,”
Nation,
4 March 1996, p. 9.

37
“Pro-Lifers Use Breast Cancer as a Cheap Scare” (reprinted from
TheEconomist), Chicago Tribune,
7 March 1996, p. 27; Susan Estrich, “Right Plays Politics with Breast Cancer,”
Los Angeles Times,
1 February 1996, p. A11; Tina Rosenberg, “The Stealth War Against Abortion,”
Rolling Stone,
27 June 1996, pp. 47-50.

38
Judith Koehler, “Abortion—Breast Cancer Link,”
Chicago Tribune,
1 December 1995, p. 27; NPR, “All Things Considered,” 23 January 1996; J. R. Darling et al., “Risk of Breast Cancer Among Young Women: Relationship to Induced Abortion,
”Journal of the National Cancer Institute
86 (1994): 1584-92.

39
See Christine Gorman, “Do Abortions Raise the Risk of Breast Cancer?” Time, 7 November 1994, p. 61; Thomas Maugh, “Study Adds to Discourse on Cancer, Abortion,”
Los Angeles Times,
12 October 1996, p. A17.

40
Alison Bass, “Link Between Abortion and Breast Cancer Is Downplayed,”
Boston Globe,
24 January 1996, p. 4; NPR, “All Things Considered,” 23 January 1996.

41
CNN, “Worldview,” 11 October 1996; Richard Knox, “Bias in Abortion Study Is Charged,”
Boston Globe,
12 October 1996, p. A1.

42
See “Abortion and Gulf War Studies,”
New York Times,
10 January 1997, p. A32; Jane Brody, “Big Study Finds No Link in Abortion and Cancer,”
New York Times,
9 January 1997, p. A12.

43
Rick Weiss, “Study Disputes Breast Cancer, Abortion Link,”
Washington Post,
9 January 1997, p. A1.

1
Don Phillips, “Death in Detroit,”
Washington Post,
20 March 1991, p. A1.

2
Amy Harmon, “Soldier Uninjured in War Is Killed in Detroit,” 19 March 1991,
Los Angeles Times,
p. A8; “Widow Found Guilty in Slaying of Gulf War Veteran,” Associated Press, 9 June 1994, p. A19.

3
Joe Treen et al., “The Murder of Gulf War Veteran Tony Riggs Was a Mystery-Then Detroit Police Arrested His Widow,”
People,
8 April 1991, p. 111; “Wife Freed in Killing of GI Just Back from Gulf,”
Chicago Tribune,
30 April 1991, p. A5.

4
Rhonda Gibson and Dolf Zillmann, “Exaggerated Versus Representative Exemplification in News Reports,”
Communication Research
21 (1994): 603-24; Todd Burke and Charles O‘Rear, “Armed Carjacking,”
Police Chief
60 (1993): 18—23; Michael Rand,
Carjacking, National Crime Victimization Survey
(Washington, DC: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1994).

5
Coffey quote: David Shaw, “A Negative Spin on the News,”
Los Angeles Times,
17 April 1996, p. A10.

6
John R. MacArthur,
Lapdogs for the Pentagon Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War
(New York: Hill and Wang, 1992); Jack Anderson and Dale Van Atta,
Stormin’ Norman: An American Hero
(New York: Zebra Books, 1991); Eliot Cohen, “The Mystique of U.S. Air Power,”
Foreign Affairs
73 (1994): 11—29; Edward Herman, “The Media’s Role in U.S. Foreign Policy,”
Journal of International Affairs
47 (1993): 23—45; Daniel Hallin, “TV’s Clean Little War,”
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
47 (1991): 16-20. See also Jean Baudrillard,
TheGulf War Did Not Take Place
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996).