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Importance of the truth in journalism
Importance of the truth in journalism
Importance of the truth in journalism
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President Theodore Roosevelt was angry. Every day another article about corruption and illegal activity was appearing in the newspapers. Journalists who reported only the dark side of politics and big business, the president thundered in April 1906, were like the "man with the muckrake" in the classic book Pilgrim's Progress. That man refused to look up from the ground as he raked "to himself the filth of the floor." Filth, or corruption, should be exposed, but the reporter who does nothing else "speedily becomes ... one of the most potent forces of evil" in the country. Investigative journalism, warned the president, was only beneficial when held to rigorous standards of accuracy.
Ida Tarbell, one of the first "muckrakers," as they came to be called, agreed that journalists should strive for truth. Her
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Having loved to study rock fragments under her microscope as a child, Tarbell especially enjoyed showing her students the scientific process in lab work. From science, she learned the importance of gathering sound facts before drawing conclusions.
Because of insufficient pay, Tarbell gave up teaching after two years and moved back into her parents' home. It was a fortunate move. Through her parents, Tarbell met a man named Theodore L. Flood, founder and editor of the Chautauquan, a monthly magazine published in nearby Meadville. Impressed by the bright young woman, Flood convinced Tarbell to join his staff in 1883. "To me it was only a temporary thing," she remembered. "I had no inclination toward writing or toward editorial work."
Tarbell worked at her "temporary" job as an editor and writer for the Chautauquan for the next seven years. On the job, she perfected her keen attention to detail. Tarbell remembered worrying, "What if the accent was in the wrong place? What if I brought somebody into the world in the wrong
Being a conscientious journalist, Ida Tarbell is known for the inauguration of muckraking. President Theodore Roosevelt had given the term ‘muckraking’ to this type of investigative journalism done by Ida Tarbell. Roosevelt did not fully support her work because of its "focus and tone." The President got this name from a c...
At the start of the 20th century, journalists had begun to play an important role in exposing wrongdoings within politics and society. These journalists, often called muckrakers, used their journalism to focus on political flaws and corruption in city governments. Several popular publishers adopted this form of journalism, which became widely popular
Tarbell began her career as a teacher in Poland, Ohio and after two years, “she realized teaching was too much for her and that she enjoyed writing more” (Lowrie). Tarbell returned to Pennsylvania, where she met Theodore L. Flood, editor of The Chautauquan (Lowrie). She quickly accepted Flood's offer to write for the paper; she said, “I was glad to be useful, for I had grown up with what was called the Chautauqua movement” (Lowrie). In 1886, she became the managing editor (Lowrie). In 1890, Ida wrote articles for many magazines, including McClure's Magazine, and was eventually offered the position of editor for McClure's (King). Her series on Abraham Lincoln ended up being published into a book because the articles doubled the magazine's popularity (King). This gave Tarbell a national reputation as a major writer.
Born in Erie County, Pennsylvania, the muckraker Ida Tarbell took down Standard Oil, one of the first and largest international companies and basically all monopolistic companies along with it. Before Tarbell took down Standard Oil, Tarbell had to go through many hardships because there were not many available positions for her. One of her jobs paid only 500 dollars a year (Thompson) and her father, Frank Tarbell, was once in the oil business but was beaten down by Standard Oil. Later on, Tarbell wrote articles and managed to gain the attention of S.S. McClure, the owner of McClure’s Magazine which was a popular magazine of the time. Tarbell later managed to join the magazine and she made it famous. One of her works included The History of
During the late 19th century, leading into the 20th century, The Gilded Age was in full swing. The exploitation and graft of the time motivated a group of investigative journalists, entitled muckrakers, to emerge. These muckrakers sensationalized the social, economic, and political corruption in America and brought the issues to the public eye. In looking at a common story threaded through the history of muckraking- poverty- one can see the style of muckraking, and the way it affects society has dramatically changed over time. At their start, muckrakers were effective, as they targeted the white, middle class population; a population capable of enacting changes. Yet, as multimedia news has arisen, individuals all of socioeconomic backgrounds have access to news, and due to bias broadcasting people are becoming jaded to the news. Hence, the reputation and credibility of modern muckrakers is growing increasingly weak.
Words came from readers in Cleveland that “‘the impression soon prevails in your mind that Ernie Pyle… is the President of the United State’” (Tobin 29). In the midst of World War II Ernie Pyle stood out from the crowd of journalists with a style that hadn’t been seen before but spoke to American readers all over both on the home front and abroad. One writer and historian, Jordan Braverman, puts it into perspective however the lack of truth of some reporting by saying, “Soldiers were known to have huddled in foxholes under heavy aerial bombardment, while their radios were telling them that U.S. forces had complete control of the skies in their battle sector” (Braverman 84). It wasn’t just radio that did this but also print media that both wasn’t always accurate and could be seen as having alternative motives in their writing. One reader summed it up as “you read Lippman for wisdom. Pegler for controversy, Winchell for gossip, but Pyle you read for sustenance in difficult times” (Tobin 28). Echoing this feeling, one deliveryman proclaimed “‘the trouble with these column guys is they want to organize the world… except Pyle. Throw the rest away, but gimme Pyle’” (Tobin 28). Ernie Pyle began his career as a columnist before World War II had begun, and so did his development of distinct aspects of journalism that he carried through his Word War II columns and brought with them a new light to journalism. Roy Howard himself the head of the Scripps-Howard Publishing company wired Pyle a message during the war. It read, “‘ YOUR STUFF IS NOT ONLY GREATEST YOUR CAREER… BUT MOST ILLUMINATING HUMAN AND APPEALING DESCRIPTIVE MATTER PRINTED AMERICA SINCE OUTBREAK BATTLE BRITAIN…YOUR STUFF TALK OF NEW YORK’” (Tobin 57-58). Pyle gathered inform...
Muckrakers, journalists who exposed social, economic and political evils, controlled media and therefore had profound influence over the th...
Hello, I am Ida Tarbell. I was an American journalist who was born on November 5, 1857, in Erie County, Pennsylvania. I graduated from Titusville High school in 1875 and I attended Allegheny College in 1880 where I was the only woman in my graduating class. The region where I was born was rich with oil. My father was an oil producer. He was negatively affected by the price-fixing scheme of 1872. This scheme was made by the Pennsylvania Railroad and John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company. The small producers, like my father were forced to sell the oil he produced to Standard Oil. My father was one of the few people who chose not to do this and he struggled because of this. I accepted a teaching job in Poland, Ohio, but I walked away from
Bonila, Denise M., and Levy, Beth, Eds. The Power of the Press. H. W. Wilson, 1999.
In 1960 American Journalist and Politician, Clare Boothe Luce delivered a speech to Journalists at the Women's National Press CLub, criticizing the American Press in favor of public demand for sensational stories. Luce prepares her audience for her message through the use of a critical tone.
The old proverb “the Pen is mightier than the sword” (Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy) still holds significance in protecting of public rights. Words such as freedom, and liberty engendered the idea for democracy. Such words formed into sentences and paragraphs enlightened the public to take action against tyranny and corruption. Freedom of the press is what ensured the general masses of their public rights. The exemplary case in which the freedom of the press played a role was the endeavors of Woodward and Bernstein to unravel the corrupted politics behind the Watergate Scandal. The movie All the President’s Men depicts the proceedings of the Watergate scandal, the scheme to attack the crux of democracy: “ the open election”. Also how the two journalists of the Washington Post progressed to unveil the relationship between the Watergate Burglary and the White House. On one hand, the movie represents the role of the media in its obligation to convey the truth to the masses. On the other hand, the movie reflects political corruption and conspiracy. The accomplishment of Woodward and Bernstein presents the importance of the interaction between the media, the government, and the general masses of society. The role of the media is not only to intervene between the State and the public, but also to take account of public ideas and to apply those ideas to new policies. Also, the media acts as a safeguard to prevent the corruption of the State. Thus, the Watergate scandal signifies the significance of the media as an intermediary between the government and the public mass.
Elizabeth Jane Cochran, better known by her pen name, Nellie Bly, was the inventor of investigative reporting, according to The National Women’s History Museum. Investigative journalism was such a big step for the mass media because it gave the “potential to present new realities and shatter old paradigms” (Parry, Robert). During the mid to late 1800s, humanitarian problems such as the treatment of the mentally ill, government regulations of corporations and the lack of equality between genders were never fully covered by the news due to the...
The press began in the early 1900s, where the era of yellow journalism had begun. Yellow journalism was sensationalized news that was sold as newspapers. It was a modern day tabloid that did not report factual information and it was extremely opinion based. These sensationalized stories would be sold through-out the states. Even though the information could have been false, the readers or citizens did not have the resources to criticize the newspaper and recognize whether the news was factual or false. Around the 1920’s the era of media professionalization emerged. Media professionalization was the act of setting standards for media, and becoming a professional field. It set obligations that democracy could not exist without a free, fair, and
In order to understand new media, one must first have a solid background of the old media. The old media traces its origins back to the “elite or partisan press [that] dominated American journalism in the early days of the republic” (Davis 29). With the advent of the penny press around 1833, the press changed its basic purpose and function from obtaining voters for its affiliated political party to making profit (Davis 29). With more available papers, individual companies competed with each other with “muckraking journalism”—investigative journalism exposing corruption—and “yellow journalism”—sensationalist journalism that completely disregarded the facts (Davis 30). The press continued to evolve its journalistic approaches and next shifted to “lapdog journalism,” r...
The importance of journalism has always been defined by the inherent value of information. To possess information is to possess power, and without it a society can effectively be rendered mute. The essential functions of a journalist, to be both the watchdogs of the elite and the providers of factual and unbiased reporting to the public, have begun to decline in recent decades. Although the news is integral to the fabric of democracy, the current market imperatives of sustaining a profitable business model, the rise of a corporate ethos within journalistic institutions, and the slowly deteriorating standards of what makes a good story have all contributed to the devaluation of fact-based, unbiased, and investigative journalism. When looking