Tradition Vs. New Journalism in the New York
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“The Old White Sportswriters Didn’t Know What to Think”: Tradition vs. New Journalism in the New York Times’s Coverage of Muhammad Ali, 1963-1971 A thesis presented to the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University and the Institute for Communication and Media Studies of Leipzig University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degrees Master of Science in Journalism (Ohio University), Master of Arts in Global Mass Communication (Leipzig University) Jeffrey J. Zidonis December 2018 © 2018 Jeffrey J. Zidonis. All Rights Reserved. This thesis titled “The Old White Sportswriters Didn’t Know What to Think”: Tradition vs. New Journalism in the New York Times’s Coverage of Muhammad Ali, 1963-1971 by JEFFREY J. ZIDONIS has been approved for the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, the Scripps College of Communication, and the Institute for Communication and Media Studies by Michael S. Sweeney Professor, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University Scott Titsworth Dean, Scripps College of Communication, Ohio University Christian Pieter Hoffman Director, Institute for Communication and Media Studies, Leipzig University ii Abstract ZIDONIS, JEFFREY J., M.S., Journalism; M.A., Global Mass Communication, December 2018 3704440 “The Old White Sportswriters Didn’t Know What to Think”: Tradition vs. New Journalism in the New York Times’s Coverage of Muhammad Ali, 1963-1971 Director of Thesis: Michael S. Sweeney Committee Members: Eddith Dashiell, Hans-Joerg Stiehler Boxer Cassius Clay exploded unto public consciousness during a time of turbulent change in U.S. politics, race relations, and journalism. This thesis examines a particular subset of news coverage of Clay from his first title fight through his conversion to Islam and adoption of the name Muhammad Ali, on through his refusal to be drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, and finally to his triumphant return to boxing. The author chose to examine the work of two New York Times reporters, Arthur Daley and Robert Lipsyte, as a case study of traditional vs. “new” journalism in their coverage of one of the most colorful and controversial figures of the 1960s and 1970s. Daley, an old-school journalist, saw Clay/Ali primarily as a clown, iconoclast, and threat, while Lipsyte, much younger and an outsider to mainstream journalism in significant ways, saw him primarily as an avatar of positive change. The author examined the stories and columns by these two writers using critical discourse analysis and the Hierarchical Influences Model of media content developed by Pamela Shoemaker and Stephen J. Reese. iii Dedication To my friends, my professors, and writers who have helped to make me conscious. And to Muhammad Ali, who started it all. iv Acknowledgments Writing this thesis would not have been possible without the dedication of professors at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and the Institute for Communication and Media Studies of Leipzig University. In particular, I wish to thank my committee chair, Dr. Michael S. Sweeney. His knowledge of the literature on journalism history, mass communication theory, the 1960s, sports history, and race in America was especially helpful in my research. Additionally, I am grateful for his guidance on the direction/organization of this thesis, which would be incomplete without him. Furthermore, I wish to thank committee members Dr. Eddith Dashiell of Ohio University and Professor Doctor Hans-Joerg Stiehler of the Institut für Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft der Universität Leipzig, who both offered key suggestions surrounding the literature and the layout. Additionally, I wish to thank my classmates, friends, and family for the support throughout graduate school—and for the insights they all brought to our conversations on journalism, sports, and race. Researching Ali’s life reignited my passion for sports and sportswriting. Digging through his archived fights on YouTube and watching documentaries on him reminded me of the kinetic beauty of the body as displayed by top athletes. However, what most piqued my renewed passion was the way in which Ali illustrated sports’ ability to have an impact (socially and politically) on wider society. As an American, Ali was a true patriot, fighting for the betterment of his country—challenging the U.S. government to live up to its creed as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal.” v Art (including that of writers) offers the best hope for increasing empathy—in its ability to offer insights on another’s life (especially toward those whose backgrounds might be unfamiliar to the consumer)—and consciousness among individuals. Here, figures such as Ali allow writers, even sports journalists, to affect a reader’s consciousness and empathy toward others. vi Table of Contents Page Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................... v Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Mass Communication Models ...................................... 6 Chapter 3: Ali, Daley, and Lipsyte ................................................................................... 79 Chapter 4: Research Question and Method .................................................................... 103 Chapter 5: Results ........................................................................................................... 107 Chapter 6: Discussion and Conclusion ........................................................................... 137 References ....................................................................................................................... 150 Appendix: Articles by Daley and Lipsyte Examined for This Thesis ............................ 161 vii Chapter 1: Introduction Leading up to the United States’ presidential election in 2016, many American sports fans joined in calling for sports and sports journalism to avoid politics.1 Other than writing articles related to sports and politics, sportswriters especially used Twitter to voice their political opinions (i.e. about NBA superstar LeBron James campaigning with Hillary Clinton, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice,2 etc.). Many Twitter users, originally following writers for sports-related content, did not like seeing these tweets on their timelines.3 Arguing that it was not a sportswriter’s job to cover politics and that politics should be separate from sports, users often tweeted back to the sportswriters that they should “stick to sports.”4 The culmination of the “stick to sports” argument occurred in September 2017.5 The first spark took place on September 11, when ESPN anchor Jemele Hill tweeted, “Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists.”6 During a press conference two days later, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the tweet was a “fireable offense.”7 On September 15, President Trump demanded an apology, tweeting, “ESPN is paying a really big price for its politics (and bad programming). People are dumping it in RECORD numbers. Apologize for untruth!”8 Under pressure, Hill clarified that her tweet reflected her own beliefs and not those of ESPN. Then, at a political rally in Alabama on September 22, Trump spoke against NFL players who knelt during the national anthem. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these 1 NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!’9 After this, apparently in defiance of the president and his followers, many more athletes and sportswriters refused to just stick to sports—from NFL players across the league joining in kneeling or locking arms10 to athletes and writers across sports responding (via Twitter, news articles, etc.) in support of the protest and the right to protest, in general.11 Despite the recent emergence of the call to “stick to sports,” this is not the first time athletes and their scribes have used their platforms—and were condemned for it—to engage in social/political issues. Stating his opposition to the war in Vietnam, Muhammad Ali famously said in 1966, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong.”12 New York Times sports reporter Arthur Daley wrote in response that the heavyweight champion was “spurning patriotism and affronting a nation.”13 Daley said the fighter “attached himself to a hate organization, the Black Muslims, and antagonized everyone with his boasting and his disdain for the decency of even a low-grade patriotism.”14 Later that year, another sports reporter for the Times, Robert Lipsyte, said Ali “was bitterly attacked in this country for statements that veterans’ groups and publicity- seeking politicians found ‘unpatriotic.’”15 Thus, two prominent sportswriters for the most prestigious newspaper in the United States—one a Manhattan native in his early sixties who had been an athletic star at Roman Catholic schools, and who had come of age in the middle of the century and flourished in the conservative 1940s and 1950s; the other