Chapter 11: Pushing the Civil Rights Movement onto the National Agenda

          The Civil Rights Movement was an ever growing national movement to stop the horrible treatment that African Americans would recieve. Even after slavery was abolished, a lot of racist people found ways in holding the African Americans back from complete liberation. The saying goes that African Americans can be "separate but equal", but that was outruled in 1954. The U.S. Supreme Court stated "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" due to the fact that African American children didn't get the kind of education as the whites did. This resulted from The Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. Slowly but surely, African Americans started a movement that would enable real equality to be present in their every day lives. It was a struggle and it was a very tough fight, but they did not slow the momentum for their cause, and they refused to be silenced, ergo, the freedom and liberation that African Americans have today.



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          The usage of the television in displaying the news and current events helped to encourage and speed up freedom and equality rights for African Americans. "Segragationist started to see that television was disrupting the system -- they were labeled as the enemy" (Streitmatter). The leading stations who would broadcast the Civil Rights Movement were given nicknames by segragationists; ABC was called Afro Broadcasting Company, CBS, Colored Broadcasting System, and NBC being Nigger Broadcasting Company. If you were seen reporting any negative thing that would happen to African Americans, your life was in danger. They felt as though if you were helping the movement, that you were their enemy and they would attack you just as much as they would attack the African Americans. Richard Valeriani was reporting under NBC, and because of it, he was roughly hit in the back of the head with the wooden handle of an ax, which resulted in a severe head wound. A state trooper witnessed the whole thing and didn't even arrest the man who attacked him, rather, he took the ax handle away from him and sent him along his way.




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          There are many different occasions where African Americans would try to be a part of this equality that was said they obtained, but whenever they did, they were attacked for it, and treated in extrememly horrendous ways. One occasion in 1957, was when nine African American students transferred to Central High School in Arkansas, which is known for having only white students. The Governor, Orval Faubus told the Arkansas National Guardsmen not to let them in. Because of the number of whites that were displeased about African Americans attending Central High School, many of them were outside the school awaiting their arrival. Concerned about their safety, the police had brought them to school. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Eckford, one of the nine, did not get this notification, and as she was walking to school, she was harassed and verbally assaulted by the whites. A white middle aged woman who was worried about her and wanted to help, lead her onto a city bus where she can escape the abuse. Eisenhower had to step in and take matters into his own hands because the governor wouldn't cooperate with him or the Supreme Court. Governor Faubus "was [outwardly] displaying defiance toward the Supreme Court's decision of desegregation" and so Eisenhower ordered the National Guardsmen, under federal control, to protect the Little Rock Nine, which they were later called. A few years afterward, in 1961, University of Georgia and University of Mississippi began the desegregation process, University of Alabama following in 1963.




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          Another occasion was when a "racially mixed group of college students" decided to travel by bus from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans. They became known as "freedom riders" and NBC's cameraman Moe Levy wanted to capture it all on film. The further south they went, the more people would taunt them and ridicule them and so the police decided to escort the buses to their final destination. At some point during the drive the police cars were no where to be found. When the "freedom riders" got to the Montgomery station, there awaiting them was a group of 2,000 segregationists. They were waiting for them with weapons such as bricks, baseball bats, and lead pipes. As a result of this monstrous act, the "freedom riders" lost teeth, had broken bones, and many of them were disfigured for the rest of their lives. As for Moe Levy, "one of his legs was permanently injured". There were no recordings of this incident because the crowd purposely destroyed Levy's camera.  

Chapter 5: Journalism as Warmonger

The Spanish-American War



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The media has a way of manipulating people for their own benefits. They have the ability to sway someone's opinions to favor their own personal beliefs and in doing so, they begin to gain momentum for their cause. This chapter depicts a perfect guideline of how you can win over so many people and get them to be on your side of the cause. A warmonger is a person who advocates war. Being that this chapter is called "Journalism as Warmonger" lets us know that the journalists were supporting and encouraging the war, which ultimately lead us into the Spanish-American War. The method used so robustly was yellow journalism. The Spanish-American War was triggered by the many lies and distorted reports that were published by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. Their dishonesty in their reports were increased so much to the point where they started to create events just for the purpose of outdoing one another, and increasing their circulation. They took sensationalism to its peak.



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Joseph Pulitzer began his years as a journalist who would "actively crusade in the community interest" as well as writing his works with accurate information. William Randolph Hearst set out to grab readers by entertainment. When there wasn't any news worth reporting, he would hire people to act out roles, creating his own shocking stories to write about. In 1895, after idolizing Pulitzer for so long, he finally decided that he wanted to compete with him. Once the war was ignited between the two, they would make sure to create a combination of news and shocking entertainment that would draw more readers to their paper. So with every coverage that they did, they would always exxagerate the information that they gathered or they would include false information. In 1895, Cuba and the Spanish had their own personal problems amongst each other. Cuba decreased Spanish economic interests by destroying their goods and the transportation used in transporting those goods. Hearst sided with the Cubans saying that all they wanted was "liberty" and he made the Spaniards out to be brutal and mean. When the problems that the Cubans and the Spanish had toward each other started to reveal itself more effortlessly, Pulitzer didn't feel as though the United States should partake in the conflict. As Hearts' circulation grew due to his sensationalistic reports about the conflict between the two, Pulitzer changed his mind to support the choice of helping the Cubans. In doing this, his circulation increased as well, and the war between both Pulizter and Hearst continued, while simultaneously advocating that the United States go into war.



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In December of 1896, Hearst sent reporter Richard Harding Davis and artist Frederic Remington to Cuba to report on whatever it is that they witnessed. He was so eager on getting new and entertaining news, that he offered them $3,000 instead of the normal $120 a month, to go. Remington had updated Hearst about their findings, reporting that there was nothing to report, but Hearst was determined on making something out of nothing. He printed a story stating how Spanish officers forced young Cuban women strip, making the Spanish officers look like really bad people. When "New York World", Pulitzer's paper, found the women who had been "stripped", they were told a different version. The young women said that they were searched by a female officer. After that false story was published by Hearst, Pulitzer sent his own reporters to Cuba. After many stories being written and published based off of inaccurate or created information, the Spaniards wanted to do something about it. In 1898 they took Hearst's boat from the Havana Harbor. This greatly upset Hearst leading him to speak negatively about the Spanish and the United States navy for not doing anything about his boat. He was able to cause a lot more rifts between the Spanish and the United States when the U.S.S. Maine exploded on February 15, 1898, killing 260 U.S. sailors. Both Pulitzer and Hearst pushed the United States into war by what they wrote in their paper; because of their headlines, false representation, drawings, and editorials.



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Chapter 4: Attacking Municipal Corruption: The Tweed Ring



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In the introduction of "Mightier than the Sword: How the News Media Have Shaped American History" by Rodger Streitmatter, he states that "the Fourth Estate shapes, not causes events to occur".  I never knew the extent in which the media had so much power until I read the fourth chapter, Attacking Municipal Corruption: The Tweed Ring. The Tweed Ring consisted of a group of city officials who indulged in corruption and fraud, taking millions of money from city taxpayers. 



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The Tweed Ring started out with the ring-leader, William Marcy Tweed. He was very well known in politics and because he was a member of the Tammany Hall, he became even more noticed by people. Tammany Hall was an "urban political organization of the nineteenth century" and Tweed eventually grew to being the highest official there. He was able to take over and persuade many people in ways that would make him and his ring very wealthy. He acquired an immense amount of money to where he was able to silence newspapers and journalists from writing stories about his involvement regarding the frauds and corruption he participated in. He paid them off with approximately $7 million dollars so that he nor his ring would be exposed, in fact, the newspapers began to support them if ever something negative would come up against them. Because of peoples' desire to have more, the officials, and many of the newspapers remained corrupt for many years; this is what we call the Gilded Age. 




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Thomas Nast, was a very influential political cartoonist. Before reading this, I never really thought of a cartoonist being able to change the perspective of others. If I sit down and actually give it some thought, that is exactly what artists do. Although artists tend to give off an expression or a certain emotion when they draw, Nast put his talent toward one main purpose: getting rid of corruption and fraud. Everything that he had published in Harper's Weekly had something to do with the negative actions of Tweed and his ring. His circulation grew to be 100,000 and he was recognized by both Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln for his remarkable work. Starting in September of 1869, he delved into his mission of bringing down Tweed and his ring. With his help, the citizens were informed on the truths about Tweed's activities. Because of the growing animosity toward Tweed from the people, he sent his "thugs" over to Nast to put a stop to his constant pictorials. He even went as far as bribing Nast with up to $500,000, to travel to Europe and study art. Nast turned down his offer and continued with his mission of exposing him. Tweed continued to try to prevent Nast from publishing his work but it didn't stop his determination. The New York Times then joined Nast in his purpose of informing the citizens and the government in the negative behavior and actions that Tweed displayed. They were able to expose him quicker when, James O' Brien, "a former supporter of the Tweed Ring" decided to give them hundreds of documents which spoke about the activities of the Tweed Ring. The Times had so much information on the Tweed Ring that for a whole month, they would present another piece of information regarding the corruption and fraud. Many newspapers were very proud at what they were doing. However, the New York newspapers weren't as happy about what the Times were doing. They knew if the Tweed Ring were brought down that they wouldn't be receiving any more money from them, and that, they didn't like.

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 They were able to print 200,000 copies of all the outstanding charges, in both English and German, and distribute them to as many people as they could. One of the best things that they did in my opinion was when Nast would draw pictures explaining what the Times would say. Because the Times used words that not everyone can fully understand, Nast would simplify through his pictures so that everyone knew exactly what was going on.


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The day right before election day in 1871, Nast decided to take the tiger which was an indication of Tammany Hall, and draw it causing nothing but destruction amongst everything. At the bottom of the picture you can also see where Nast put "The Tammany Tiger Loose - "What are you going to do about it?" They printed many copies of this and posted it in many different areas making sure that even the poorest neighborhoods were well informed. Eventually, in the year of 1873 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He stayed in prison for 3 years until he found a way to bribe hisself out of jail, leaving for Cuba and then Spain. Because of this picture below by Thomas Nast, the authorites were able to find him easily and have him brought back to jail. William Marcy Tweed died in 1878. Meanwhile, Harper's Weekly's circulation leaped from 100,000 to 300,000. The Times circulation also increased.

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Because of the Fourth Estate's determination in bringing the truth to light, Tweed and his accomplices were able to be thrown out of office and put in prison where they belong. With the teamwork of both art and reports, Harper's Weekly and The New York Times, they were able to inform the public about the corruption and fraud that were taking place. I chose this chapter because it isn't every day that you see news media working in the favor of the people. There are those journalists who are only concerned with the amount of money they take home with them instead of informing the people on important news events. I chose this one because I appreciate the truth being brought forth without hidden agendas. This chapter shows that there are good people who actually want to make a positive difference in the world and are willing to do just about any and everything that they can in order to bring a positive change. What Nast started was very influential and beneficial for the people and he is greatly appreciated and recognized for it. Ulysses S. Grant said it himself, he recognized Nast "as being most responsible for saving the country".



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My Reflections on "Mightier Than The Sword" by Rodger Streitmatter (Introduction & Chapter 1)

Reading the introduction of his book pointed out to me that he speaks moreso about how he "combines journalism and history". He explains that his book will be speaking about how the media took place in "shaping" history in many occurrences. He states that "the Fourth Estate shapes, not causes events to occur." He chose the word "shapes" because he wanted us to see the difference in that, media doesn't cause events to happen, but it can have tremendous influence on the outcome. He also says that "the news media are one of this country's most powerful institutions". Throughout the book, he says that we will read "[descriptions about] 15 events in American history where news media played a critical road in shaping landmark events." Streitmatter goes on to explain his reasoning about why he chose those particular events. He said there are a few reasons as to why he chose those specific 15. One of the reasons he chose those events is because "they span more than two centuries", this way we can see how journalism started and how it was received by the citizens and the difference from then up until now. Another reason is that "they involve a variety of media [such as] newspapers, news magazines, radio, television, and [the] internet". Finally, he concludes, is that "they illustrate how the news media have interacted with a broad range of other forces". He wrote this specifically for college student and ther general public; those who were interested in wanting to "learn more about the intertwining of the American news media and American history". Thomas Jefferson inspired the title of this book when he wrote a letter to Tom Paine in 1972. The title came from this line of the letter where Jefferson wrote "Go on then in doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword: show that reformation is more practicable by operating on the mind of many than on the body".

Chapter 1, "Sowing Seeds of Revolution", depicts the influence that the media had on the people in order to bring change in their society. Sam Adams wrote essays and news articles protesting against "taxation without representation" in 1764. He wanted it to be known that the colonies should create their own laws that can govern them. He didn't believe that the "Mother Country" should, although he still felt that they should hold on to the power over them. He knew that he had to get the citizens informed because he knew the more they knew and the more they agreed with him, the larger the impact and change would be when they were listened to. He needed their support when it came to his "revolutionary ideas", he needed for them to adopt and embrace the same cause as he, if he were to be successful in his mission. He was the person who conceived the "first systemactic gathering and distributing of news (a precursor of today's Associated Press)". Him and his team would gather information on what happened, when and where they happened and send that data down to John Holt, who is another Publisher for the New York Journal so that it can be put in the next edition of his paper. In doing this, there was a wide circulation of his work. Using this paper, which he named "Journal Occurrences", he was able to kick the British troops from out of Boston. The "Journal of Occurrences" came to a halt once they accomplished their goal, which was to kick the troops out.