"Mightier Than the Sword," Response to Chapter 6 (Muckraking)

Chapter Six of “Mightier Thank the Sword” entitled, “Muckraking: The Golden Age of Reform Journalism,” makes account of many strong examples of how journalism during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s took a big part in shaping the future of the United States and how Journalists during this era were a huge asset to the general public and a headache for large corporations and entrepreneurs who had no intent on breaking up their monopolizing companies.  Though journalist were able to make such a difference and better many harsh situations during this time period, I believe that this is could not take place as easily today, especially with all of the electronic media and millions of opinionated media makers who bring many journalists down to the level of obsolete.  It still is possible to make a difference through good hard media, but the ways to reach the public on a grand scale have been vastly eliminated as the late 1900’s rolled by and we enter the second decade of the new millennium. 

Lincoln Steffens

Lincoln Steffens, an intellectual who studies at some of the finest universities throughout Europe and The United States, is widely known as the first Muckraker.  Steffens columns took a big part in exposing government corruption and crooked politicians and through the use of his first article, “Tweed Days in St. Louis,” published in 1902, single handedly forced many crooked politicians out of office and eventually lead large cities such as Toledo, Cleveland, and Detroit to hire professional administrators who did much of the political hiring in a more standardized and cautious way by requiring that job applicants possess formal credentials and pass standardized tests,.  Steffens’ book entitled, “The Shame of Cities,” was the spark inspired many cities to follow these new policies which lead to much less government corruption and an easier way to monitor the ways that our politicians conduct themselves and work towards better futures for the general public instead of themselves.  

Steffens work was the first example of how powerful journalism and the media had become during the turn of the century and how much of a difference that one man could and did make through expressing his ideas to the public and exposing the people who would step over common citizens to heighten their careers and fatten their bank accounts.

Ida Minerva Tarbell

S.S. McClure was an Irish immigrant who founded the leading Muckraking magazine, decided to use his resources to take down large monopolies that overpowered and eclipsed common business owners and the general public.  He set his focus on Standard Oil, an oil company that controlled 90% of the nation’s oil distribution.  McClure hired innocent looking Ida Minerva Tarbell, who wrote for “Chautauguan Magazine” to investigate the giant company.  In Tarbell’s first installment, “History of the Standard Oil Company,” she described in detail the many dishonest strategies that John D. Rockefeller used in order to get a leg up on the competition and destroy all of his competitors.  One example of corruption that Tarbell was able to leak to the public through her writings was how Rockefeller had created a system of secret and illegal agreements with rail road companies that ended up with him getting preferential rates.  Rockefeller would also pay off competitors and burn evidence of sneaky business conducted within his company.  Tarbell’s writings had gained national fame and she would eventually, in 1911, led to proof that Standard Oil was in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act which lead to the breaking up of the monopoly into thirty eight smaller companies. 

Tarbell’s hard work and truthful exposure of Standard Oil was just one example of how normal journalists who believed in fighting a cause and following through with their beliefs through their writings could make such a massive difference during the early 1900’s and could inspire and create so much change the would truly be for the better and for the good of the people.

Blog # 1 "Mightier than the Sword" (Chapter 1 Response)

We live in a country famously known as the "land of the free" and the "home of the brave."  All though none of us have been around long enough or even have living relatives that can tell us stories about how life was before we became an independent nation, we all know of the historical events that took place in the late 1700's resulting in the creation of the United States of America.  Chapter one in "Mightier than the Sword," titled, "Sowing the seeds of Revolution," explains how much of a roll journalism and the press had in inspiring colonists to stand up for their rights and fight for their countries independence and freedom from oppressive British rule.

While reading, “Sowing the seeds of Revolution,” it became very evident that Sam Adams and Tom Paine were two very important Journalists and had a huge part in the inspiration and assembly of their fellow colonists.  The writings of both men are said to have transformed luke warm patriots into fiery revolutionaries. 

“The Journal of Occurrences,” was an inter-colonial news service started by John Adams.  Adams’ journal began operating in September 1768, the same month that British troops arrived in Boston.  The Journal was organized like a personal diary with the dates of the articles in chronological order.  Many of Adams’ entries were stories about the brutal and inhumane treatment of the colonists by the British soldiers.  Some examples if the media that The Journal of Occurrences was offering to the public were stories including the attempted rapes of women and the beating and robbing of innocent men walking down the street by British militiamen.  These stories fired up colonists and turned many of the citizens who were ready and willing to accept the oppressive British rule and taxation without representation into patriots that were willing and ready to revolt.  Adams’ column eventually created enough of an uprising to convince the British officials to withdraw the militiamen from Boston in August 1769.  Although the press that “The Journal of Occurrences” was spreading helped the cause of John Adams and the colonists, there were many stories that were fabricated and there were many stories about the behavior of the British Soldiers that were simply not true.  This may have been considered wrong or immoral at the time, as it is today, but the people who knew what was going looked at the false media as a form of patriotism and a way to gain ground on what they had been fighting for all along. 

In my opinion, the ways of John Adams and the writer’s of “The Journal of Occurrences,” were wrong and not very respectable, but I could not hold anything against their fabrications due to the fact that it was for a good cause and their liberal Journalism lead to the beginning of what would eventually be the Revolutionary war, which eventually resulted in American Freedom.

         In January 1776, Thomas Paine secured his place in history when he published his pamphlet, “Common Sense.”  “Common Sense,” was Paine’s way to address the public and share his political ideas in a way that ordinary colonists could understand.  Using very plain English Thomas Paine spread his ideology from town to town and city to city impacting thousands of colonists and igniting a fire within the patriots who would soon become rebels fighting for their human rights. 

         In many ways Paine could have been one of the first people to use free-press (although the constitution wasn’t yet in existence) when he began to discuss colonial independence in his Pamphlet.  This idea was a dangerous one and many people advised him to avoid touching down on that subject.  This could be looked at as an early example of how even expressing ideas that might conflict with the governments main interests could cause an individual a great deal of trouble.  Paine addressed his ideas and desires to create an independent nation anyway and it’s a good thing he did, because it wound up sitting very well with a large number of colonists and eventually would take a big part in setting the foundation for what would become the American Revolution. 

         “Common Sense,” is one of the earliest examples of how journalism and the press can shape the thoughts and ideas of society and what a big impact that the media can have on our lives.  I believe that the same type of impact is taking place on the citizens of this country today in regards to the media.  We plan our entire lives based on what we hear in the news and what is projected to happen according to some very wealthy and powerful men and women.  This wouldn’t be a bad thing if the media wasn’t so biased, but unfortunately that is not the case.  Who knows what the right things to believe are anymore.  With more and more technology coming into existence, there are more and more ways to bend the truth and fabricate news.  Americans need a firm reminder regarding what this country is supposed to be and how we are supposed to act when it comes to politics, economics, socializing, and general humanity. 

Just as MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, The Journal News, The New York Times, etc shape our lives today, the early forms of propaganda and media shaped the first citizens of the United States of America.  In my opinion, the difference between the ways that the media shaped the public in the early stages of the United States and the ways that the media shapes our populations ideas and opinions today is very significant.  We are shaped today by the ideas and greed of the rich and wealthy where as our ancestors were shaped by people who were looking to better our nation.  We are shaped today by corporations who are paying their journalists to create based around the larger main idea of the company rather than their own opinions as smaller common citizens.  These are a few examples of the direction that the current media is taking us and where our leader's priorities lye.