Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Journalism Is The Protection Between People And Any Sort Of Totalitarian Rule.

-Andrew Vachss, American author



3 comments:

Rain Trueax said...

Too many times in American history journalism has taken on an agenda and used any tool it can find to make happen what they want. They labeled it Yellow Journalism with Hearst and the Spanish American war where distortion was used to get the people riled up. I saw it when I was young with the so-called domino effect that our government and the media promoted to justify that war. Don't trust a media too much is my philosophy as it is not always journalism.

Mark Twain said, “If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.” Not to say no news media is reliable but just be sure and read the whole article not just the headline ;) and look at multiple sources.

la peregrina said...

The Re: Yellow Journalism and the Spanish-American War from the State Department website:
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/yellow-journalism

"The rise of yellow journalism helped to create a climate conducive to the outbreak of international conflict and the expansion of U.S. influence overseas, but it did not by itself cause the war. In spite of Hearst’s often quoted statement—“You furnish the pictures, I’ll provide the war!”—other factors played a greater role in leading to the outbreak of war. The papers did not create anti-Spanish sentiments out of thin air, nor did the publishers fabricate the events to which the U.S. public and politicians reacted so strongly. Moreover, influential figures such as Theodore Roosevelt led a drive for U.S. overseas expansion that had been gaining strength since the 1880s. Nevertheless, yellow journalism of this period is significant to the history of U.S. foreign relations in that its centrality to the history of the Spanish American War shows that the press had the power to capture the attention of a large readership and to influence public reaction to international events. The dramatic style of yellow journalism contributed to creating public support for the Spanish-American War, a war that would ultimately expand the global reach of the United States."

Also, yellow journalism led to the end of the Standard Oil monopoly, the creation of the Food and Drug Administration, child labor laws, and the exposure of Congressional, state, and city bribery and corruption. Sure they sensationalize some stories to sell papers but they also had the freedom to cover the stories that the "respectable" newspapers would not cover.

Rain Trueax said...

It was our first time to go overseas to fight wars-- a beginning of globalization. It is probably another difference between people in terms of the partisan divide.

If we believe it's good that the media tries to shift opinions by choosing what to cover, uses headlines to stir emotions, it's good. Of course, it works better when it's doing things they want then not.

For me, I don't want it doing that. I want the facts and both sides. I was very disappointed during the primary with the coverage I saw. I like the idea of true journalism where the story goes wherever it goes rather than only until it says something the journalist doesn't want to see and stops.

I read something the other day about how some journalists start out today to prove what they already believe-- not find out what really happened. I am sure liberals are happier with the media today than either conservatives or moderates-- and this is not Trump's doing. I got my disgust with it with how it covered Bernie when 'they' wanted Hillary.