Much has been written about the power of media to influence the public through instruments of advertising and a variety of venues (Considine & Haley, 1999; Cortes, 2000; Kilbourne, 1999). In this chapter, the author has chosen to use a singular media focus--news--to support the critical importance of teaching media literacy skills to students. She offers analyses of, in particular, news reports about the United Nations World Conference Against Racism (UN WCAR) in 2001 and media representations of terrorism and Muslims since September 2001, to underscore the need for critical thinking skills and media education. She suggests that students in a democracy must learn how and why news stories are produced in order to think consciously and critically about information they learn from news media.