DONT ASK, DONT TELL, DONT EXPLAIN - UNOFFICIAL SOURCES AND TELEVISIONCOVERAGE OF THE DISPUTE OVER GAYS IN THE MILITARY

This study analyzes the way in which television news organizations sel ected and used unofficial sources in covering the 1992-1993 controvers y over gays and military service. Using the Vanderbilt Television News Index and Abstracts, transcripts, and tapes of news programs, I exami ned all of the 155 television news stories devoted to the controversy. The findings indicate that the decisions news organizations made in c hoosing unofficial sources were the result of a complex interplay amon g journalists' understanding of newsworthiness, their narrowly operati onal definition of expertise, and the news frames they chose to struct ure individual stories. The news frame for coverage of gays and milita ry service was interest-group conflict, and television producers sough t commentary and explanation from advocates of what were designated as the ''two sides'' of the dispute. This narrow focus, in combination w ith journalists' operational definition of expertise, meant that telev ision news organizations made almost no effort to obtain the views of social scientists or other more neutral experts who could have placed the controversy in a broader social or historical context. Further, th e unofficial sources who explained the military's point of view were r etired officers and former public officials, in contrast to the politi cal outsiders who spoke for the gay plaintiffs. Thus the journalistic convention of balance was achieved, but in a way that legitimated the views of one side while marginalizing those of the other.