The Baffling Case of the Smoking Gun: The Social Ecology of Political Accounts in the Iran-Contra Affair

Drawing on media coverage and the Tower Commission Report, this paper analyzes the social construction of political accounts in the United States Iran-Contra scandal. The scandal illuminates the dynamics of accounting within a political, organizational context. The analysis demonstrates how information management, a complex division of labor, and boundary control cloud governmental responsibility for the initiatives. Moreover, coverage of political accounts within established news frames highlights questions of individual responsibility and motivation. The political accounts are based on and reinforce underlying assumptions about the legitimacy of existing institutional arrangements. Together, these dimensions form a social ecology of political accounts.