Short lectures in Media History

Short lectures in Media History Chapter Three Print Media in the 20thand 21st centuries

Press in transition • Early 20th century • Publishers at the top of their games • Technology mature, profits high • Most towns had two papers • 1970s – technology driven mergers • Monopoly newspaper takes over • 2000s – digital revolution • Most newspapers in deep financial trouble • Democratic experiment also in trouble

Overview • Muckraking press • World War I press • Russian Communist revolution • Indian non-violent revolution • German Nazi revolution • World War II press • Civil Rights era • Vietnam and Watergate era • Literary & Gonzo journalism • Environmental journalism • End game for the printing revolution

State of the press 1911 Will Irwin series Colliers Magazine The press is “wonderfully able… (but) with real faults.” “It is the mouthpiece of an older stock. It lags behind the thought of its times. . . “To us of this younger generation, our daily press is speaking, for the most part, with a dead voice, because the supreme power resides in men of that older generation.” Blamed Associated Press monopoly A familiar complaint Will Irwin’s ideas about newspapers are similar to those of many young writers today.

Muckrakers • Speech by Teddy Roosevelt April 14, 1906 • Seen as an attack on investigative press • Cites John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) • Man with the Muck Rake • He “fixes his eyes … only on that which is vile and debasing…” • “At this moment we are passing through a period of great unrest-social, political, and industrial unrest. • “It is of the utmost importance for our future that this should prove to be not the unrest of mere rebelliousness against life, of mere dissatisfaction with the inevitable inequality of conditions, but the unrest of a resolute and eager ambition to secure the betterment of the individual and the nation.

Who were the muckrakers? Ida B. Wells Baker-Barnett (1862–1931) An African American editor of Free Speech newspaper in Memphis, TN, Investigated the 1891 lynching of three innocent men at the hands of a white mob. Newspaper was burned down – fled to New York Became one of the most influential leaders in the early civil rights movement.

Who were the muckrakers? Lincoln Steffens (1866–1936) Noted for “The Shame of the Cities” 1904 series on municipal corruption for McClure’s Magazine. Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) “The Jungle,” a 1906 novel about the meat packing industry of Chicago Based on investigations by Sinclair for the Socialist magazine Appeal to Reason. Public uproar led to the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration.

Who were the muckrakers? Ida Tarbell (1857–1944) Exposed Standard Oil company’s rise to monopoly by corrupt business practices In a 1902 series in McClure’s Magazine. Encouraged antitrust law enforcement Other muckrakers: David Graham Phillips (1867–1911)—In “Treason of the Senate,” a 1906 series in Cosmopolitan exposed senators who had taken direct bribes Cecil Chesterton (1879–1918)— London’s New Witness, exposed stock fraud in the Marconi Scandal of 1912. French Le Matinalso investigated. Samuel Hopkins Adams (1871–1958)— “The Great American Fraud,” Collier’s Magazine in 1905, exposed patent medicine. (See Ch. 6 Advertising)

WWI and the press • Censorship official • Press wore army uniforms • French and British newspapers often ran with empty spaces where stories were pulled by censors • George Seldes interview with German Gen. Hindenburg censored after war, contributing to myths that led to rise of Nazis

WWI and the press 2 • Outside the station in the public square, the people of Louvain (Belgium) passed in an unending procession, women bareheaded, weeping, men carrying the children asleep on their shoulders, all hemmed in by the shadowy army of gray wolves . . . It was all like a scene upon the stage, unreal, inhuman. You felt it could not be true… • Richard Harding Davis, 1914

Censored doughboys Ridiculous censorship -- American soldiers celebrate at a German “Kantine” they captured in 1918. The photo was censored, because American soldiers couldn’t be seen drinking alcohol.

The Bolo Pasha affair • WWI German plot to buy French newspapers using money laundered by American banks. • Bolo Pasha bought Le Journal of Paris to advocate surrender to the Germans. • Linked to German spy Mata Hari, also briefly to William Randolph Hearst • Pasha was executed for treason by the French in 1917 The French WWI Bolo Pasha affair showed that manipulation of the presscould be a tactic of warfare

Russian revolution • ‘First step’ in the Russian Revolution of 1917 was to create a newspaper • The mere task of writing and distributing Iskra (Spark) would create a network of agents • Despite this, absolute censorship was the rule • Execution of dissidents was commonplace Vladimir Lenin started a newspaper in order to start a revolution. But he was no friend of the free press.

Mysterious propaganda photo Ukraine, about 1925. Would journalists really set type on the back of a truck in the middle of a wheat field? Was it staged, or faked, or part of a serious effort to get journalists close to the people?

John Reed • American journalist who wrote passionately about the Russian revolution of 1917. • “As we came out into the dark and gloomy day all around the grey horizon, factory whistles were blowing, a hoarse and nervous sound, full of foreboding. By tens of thousands, the working people poured out … and the humming slums belched out their dun and miserable hordes.” • Ten Days that Shook the World

India’s non-violent revolution • Mahatma Gandhi used newspapers to campaign for India’s freedom from British colonialism in the 1900 – post WWII period. • “The journal became for me a training in self-restraint...” • Non-violence (Satyagraha) “would probably have been impossible without Indian Opinion.” • Gandhi pursued journalism as an aid to his mission in life: to teach by example Among many accomplish-ments, Gandhi edited half a dozen newspapers during his long career as the leader of India’s independence movement.

Nazi revolution • Germany 1920s - 1945 • Grabbed newspapers, wire services • Absolute censorship Nazi book burning, Berlin, May 10, 1933. A scene not witnessed since the Middle Ages, and a harbinger of disaster, to US correspondent William L. Shirer.

WWII and the press • Furious debates on the home front • Pre-war links between US and Nazi industries infuriated Americans • Censorship by military on front lines • Didn’t prevent news about incidents like Gen. Patton hitting shell-shocked soldiers • Reconstruction of press in Germany & Japan was a top post-war priority

WWII correspondents “There is an agony in your heart and you almost feel ashamed to look at them.They are just guys from Broadway and Main Street, but you wouldn’t remember them.… If you could see them just once, just for an instant, you would know that no matter how hard people work back home, they are not keeping pace with these infantrymen.” -- Ernie Pyle “The God-Damned Infantry” was among Ernie Pyle’s best – remembered articles. A soldier’s writer, Pyle concentrated on the ordinary guys, not the generals and the grand strategies.

WWII correspondents “The liberation (of Dachau) was a frenzied scene … Inmates ofthe camp hugged and embraced the American troops, kissed the ground before them and carried them shoulder high around the place.” -- Marguerite Higgins, May, 1945 Only three years out of journalism school, Marguerite Higgins convinced editors at the Herald Tribune to send her to Europe in 1944. She also broke barriers for women reporters everywhere, convincing Gen. Douglas MacArthur to lift the ban on women correspondents in the Korean War in 1950.

Double V for African Americans • Pittsburg Courier, Chicago Defender and others were main source of news for African Americans • But wartime news of prejudice and rioting against blacks was suppressed by government • In WWI, critical reporting even led to the conviction of one African American editor under the Sedition Act • In WWII, settled on “Double V” -- Victory over fascism abroad, victory over racism at home Chicago Defender publisher John Sengstacke and an unidentified editor c. 1943

Hutchins Commission 1947 • Truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent account of the day’s events in a context which gives them meaning; • Forum for the exchange of comment and criticism; • Representative picture of the constituent groups in the society; • Presentation and clarification of the goals and values of the society; and • Full access to the day’s intelligence.

African American Press • Freedom’s Journal, 1827 was the first • “White and black must fall or flourish together.” Frederick Douglass, 1847, North Star • Altogether, 2,700 African American newspapers published in 19th and 20th centuries • Most did not survive over a decade • Major daily papers were Pittsburgh Courier, Chicago Defender • Ebony Magazine major success 1940s Frederick Douglass Publisher, North Star

Civil Rights and the Press • One of the finest moments in the history of the press • Agent of national reconciliation • Framed issues as “Civil Rights” not “race war” • Many incidents outraged public -- Emmett Till 1955, Medgar Evers, 1963 • A civil rights bombing was “… the harvest of defiance of the courts and the encouragement of citizens to defy law on the part of many Southern politicians.” -- Ralph McGill, Atlanta Journal & Constitution

Watergate 1972 – 74 Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein Washington Post entry-level reporters Found Watergate burglars had links to Nixon White House Investigated “dirty tricks” in campaign, also money to pay operatives and burglars Resulted in resignation of President Richard Nixon and criminal convictions for seven members of administration

Vietnam war coverage • US press critical of war methods but generally supportive of war aims • Networks generally kept gory footage off the air • Public opinion against war stronger than press coverage • Idea of press subverting war is akin to German “dolschtoss” myth • Nevertheless, conservatives still blame press for “losing the war”

Environmental news • Not a new phenomena – • Water pollution was covered by Benjamin Franklin in 1730s • Major new interest due to energy crisis, Earth Day, oil spills, nuclear accidents and climate change • Specialized science writers emerge to handle complexities of coverage • National Association of Science Writers, Society of Environmental Journalists

End game for the press • New technologies made printing more profitable in 1970s • This led to consolidations and mergers • Monopolies grew complacent and Wall Street demanded more profits • Press was in a weak position to meet the digital revolution in 2000 – 2011

Short lectures in Media History