Oklahoma City Bombing and the Media

Emily Cornwell

Katie Williams

LE 300G- Terrorism & the Media

Oklahoma City Bombing and the Media

Before September 11, 2001 America was attacked April 19, 1995 by one of its own citizens, the attack is now known as the Oklahoma City Bombing. The attack claimed 168 lives, which 19 of them were children and several hundred were injured, (FBI). By definition this attack was terrorism; terrorism is the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or government, often for ideological or political reasons, (Barnett, Reynolds).  From researching and studying terrorism and the media this paper will include; the background on Timothy McVeigh, Oklahoma City Bombing, how it was reported, how it is different from now and the speculations of how the media helped or harmed the situation. ^[a]

Timothy McVeigh grew up living a ‘normal life’, with loving parents and childhood friends but he felt unloved. In third grade he witnessed a neighbor boy drown a bag of kittens in a nearby pond he was so disgusted that day forward he could not bear the sight of death to the point he stopped shooting bull frogs with his bb gun. That all changed when he joined the United States Army and was deployed to the Gulf War. In basic and deployment training his mind set was changed to killing was an act of war, he even declared the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building an act of war, (Michel, Herbeck).It was just a mission and solider are used to carrying out missions that brought pain to others, (Michel, Hebeck). In a way Timothy was trying to be America’s freedom fighter, “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” ^[b](Barnett, Reynolds).  Psychological is one of the motives for political violence, Timothy displayed this in his attack in Oklahoma City, he had justified his actions to himself but no one understood or saw his point of view. He was trying to get the government’s attention, his belief was you reap what you sow and he wanted the government to reap what the sowed, (Michel, Herbeck).  He insisted that prior to deployment the Army injected him with a computer chip, (Michel, Herbeck). He hated the government; he showed this in Waco two years prior to the attack in Oklahoma City because of its raid on the Branch Davidian compound, (Casey).  

The morning of April 19, 1994 when Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was attacked by an American citizen, (FBI). The American citizen was Timothy McVeigh, a decorated war veteran who served in the Gulf War, a man that felt that he needed to gain justice for America from their own government, (Michel, Herbeck). He was accomplice by Terry Nichols, a friend from the Army, (Casey). This attack was a citizen vs. state form of political violence, (Barnett and Reynolds).  As people turned on their television they witnessed emergency crews rushing to the scene of the attack and debris scatter around the streets of Oklahoma City, (KOCO-TV). Seeing the building in this condition will be a site many people will never be able to erase from their memory. This shock media was what made many viewers stay tuned in, people that did not normally watch the news turned on their television to learn, (NBC).