AMERICAN MEDIA HISTORY

THIRD EDITION

Anthony R. Fellow California State University, Fullerton

* > WADSWORTH i% CENGAGE Learning"

• • • Australia Brazil Japan Korea Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States Contents

Preface XIX

INTRODUCTION Before the American Experience 1

The Impact of the Printing Press 2 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Johannes Gutenberg 1400-1467 The Printing Press in Early England 5 John Milton and British Roots of Free Expression Thomas Hobbes and John Locke 9 "Cato's Letters" 10 Conclusion 11

PART 1 1690-1833 The Press in Early America 13

chapter 1 The Colonial Years 15 Printing in British America 17 Benjamin Harris, Printer 20 John Campbell, Favored Printer 21 James Franklin, Rebel Printer 22 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790 26 Benjamin Franklin, Cautious Printer 27

ix x Contents

Tests of Press Freedom 29 William Bradford and Press Freedom 29 John Peter Zenger and Press Freedom 30 The Zenger Verdict 34 Anna Zenger and Colonial Women of the Press 35 Conclusion 36

chapter 2 The Press and the Revolution 39 A Reluctant Revolution 40 The Seven Years' War 40 The Stamp Act of 1765 41

Voices on the Road to Revolution 42 James Rivington, The Tory Voice 44 Hugh Gaine, Turncoat Editor 46 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Thomas Paine 1737-1809 46 John Dickinson, The Whig Voice 48 Isaiah Thomas, The Patriot Voice 50 Samuel Adams, The "Master of the Puppets" 51 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Samuel Adams 1722-1803 52 Edes and Gill's Gazette 52 The Sons of Liberty 55 Declaration of Independence 58 as a Revolutionary Force 59 The Revolutionary War's Impact on the Press 60 Readership 60 Distribution 61 Editorials 61 61 Conclusion 63

chapter 3 The Press and the Founding of a Nation 65 The Bill of Rights and Press Freedom 67 The Federalists and Federalist Editors 69 The Federalist Editors: Fenno, Cobbett, and Russell 70 The Antifederalists and Antifederalist Editors 71 Antifederalist Editors: Freneau and Bache 72 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Philip Freneau 1752-1832 74 The Role of the Press in Political Coverage 75 Washington and the Press 76 Adams and the Press 78 Contents xi

Jefferson and the Press 78 Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 79 The Party Press in Retrospect 80 Conclusion 81

PART 2 1833-1860: A New Politics, A New Press 83

chapter 4 A Press for the Masses 85 A Very Different 86 Benjamin Day and the Sun 86 James Gordon Bennett and the New York Herald 88

James Gordon Bennett as Innovator 90 James Gordon Bennett and the Great Moral War 92 and the New York Tribune 95 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: William Cullen Bryant 1794-1878 96 The New York Tribune 98 Editorial Influence of the "Great Moral Organ" 99 The and the Mexican War 101 and 104 Why a Press for the Masses? 105 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Andrew Jackson 1767-1845 106 Conclusion 108

PART 3 1860-1900 The Age of New Journalism 111

chapter 5 A Divided Nation, a Divided Media 113 Roots of the Conflict 114 Before the Storm 115 William Lloyd Garrison and the Liberator 116 Lovejoy, Birney, and Tappan 117 The Black Press 118

AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Harriet Beecher Stowe 1811-1896 118 Frederick Douglass and the North Star 120

The Press on the Eve of War 122 The Civil War Press in the North 123 Women Correspondents of the North 124 The Civil War Press in the South 125 Magazines of the North and the South 125 xii Contents

AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm 1815-1884 126 Lincoln and the Press 128

AMERICAN MEDIA CLASSIC: President Lincoln Writes Horace Greeley 129 Lincoln and Greeley 132 Censorship and the Civil War 133 "Mob Censorship" 134 Censorship by Armies 136 Voluntary Censorship 136 Formalized Censorship 136 Suspension 137 Impact of the Civil War on the Press 137 Improved Methods of Printing 138 The Sunday Newspaper 138 News Agencies 138 Syndication 139 The Civil War and the Practice of Journalism 139 Saturation Coverage 139 Visual Journalism 140 New Reporting Style 142 Newswriting Style 142 Conclusion 143

chapter 6 The Yellow Press and the Times 145

Newspapers as Public Defenders 145 Joseph Pulitzer 148 The St. Louis Post-Dispatch 150 The New York World 151 Pulitzer's New Journalism 152 News 152 Illustrations 153 Stunts 153 Crusades 153 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Nellie Biy 1864-1922 154 Editorial Page 156 Advertising 156 Pulitzer's Sunday World 156 Yellow Journalism 157 William Randolph Hearst 159 The San Francisco Examiner 159 The New York Morning Journal 160 The Spanish-American War of 1898 162 Press Coverage of the War 163 Mckinley's Assassination 166 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Robert S. Abbott 1868-1940 168 Adolph Ochs and the New York Times 168 Conclusion 171 chapter 7 Magazines, Muckraking, and Public Relations 175

Robber Barons on the Rise 175 Enter the Muckrakers 176 Muckraking Magazines 178 Munsey's 178 Cosmopolitan 179 McClure's 180 IdaTarbell 180 Lincoln Steffens 182 David Graham Phillips 184 Upton Sinclair 186 Muckraking's Impact 187 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Upton Sinclair 1878-1968 188 The Death of Muckraking 190 Digests and Newsmagazines 191 Time Magazine 192 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Margaret Bourke-White 1904-1971 194 Life 197 The New Yorker 197 The Birth of Public Relations 198 Press Agentry 199 Political Campaigns 199 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: P. T. Barnum 1810-1891 200 Advertising 200 Business and Industry 201 Ivy Lee 202 Edward L. Bernays 203 Expansion of Corporate Public Relations 205 Conclusion 206

1900-1950 Media Promises in a Technological PART 4 Society 209

CHAPTER 8 American Film 211 Motion Picture Experimentation 212 Story-Telling Motion Pictures 214 xiv Contents

D. W. Griffith and the Art of Filmmaking 215 Mack Sennett Defines Film Comedy 217 Hollywood 218 Economic Expansion of the Motion Picture Business 219 AMERICAN SNAPSHOT: "It's Not All Hollywood Glitz for Producers" 220 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Thomas Ince 1882-1924 222

Film as a Social and Political Power 223 Sound Motion Pictures 225 Period Films Reflect Politics and Society 226 AMERICAN MEDIA CLASSIC: Seal of the Motion Picture Production Code 228 Challenges to the Motion-Picture Industry 228 Challenges by the Courts 229 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Louis B. Mayer 1885-1957 230 Challenge by Congress 230 Challenge by Television 234 Economic Challenges 236 Conclusion 237

chapter 9 Radio and Its Promises 239

Scientific Achievements and the Rise of Communications Giants 240 Telegraphy 240 Electricity 241 Telephony 242 Wireless Telegraphy 242 Lee De Forest 245 Edwin H. Armstrong 246 The Radio Corporation of America 247 Radio Stations 248 Radio Financing 249 Formation of the Networks 250 National Broadcasting Company 250 Columbia Broadcasting System 250 Mutual Broadcasting System 252 Radio Programming 252 AMERICAN SNAPSHOT: "Radio Connected Us to the World" 254 Rock Rescues Radio 254 Political Broadcasting 256 Radio News Broadcasting 257 World War II and Radio Broadcasting 257 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt 1882-1945 and 1884-1962 258 Contents xv

Regulation of Radio Broadcasting 261 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Ernie Pyle 1900-1945 262 Radio Act of 1927 262 Communications Act of 1934 264 Radio's Blue Book 265 Radio Broadcasting in Transition 266 Talk, Talk, Talk 267 Social and Political Impact of Radio 268 Conclusion 269

chapter 10 Television: Progress and Problems 271 Early TV Inventors 271 Zworykin, Sarnoff, and Farnsworth 273 AMERICAN MEDIA CLASSIC: Earliest Concept of Television 273 Television Arrives 276

AMERICAN SNAPSHOT: "When Television Arrived in Omaha" 276

Postwar Television 278 The Color War 278 Early TV Entertainment 280 Quiz Show Scandals 281 Shameful Stereotyping of Blacks 284 Television News 285 Edward R. Murrow 286 The Case Against Milo Radulovich 288 Joseph McCarthy 289 Person To Person 290

Murrow vs. McCarthy 291 The End of Murrow and McCarthy 293 60 Minutes 295

AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Walter Cronkite 1916-2009 296 TV News Expands 297 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Barbara Walters 1931- 298 JFK: The First Television President 300 AMERICAN SNAPSHOT: "TV Made Kennedy Part of Our Family" 301 The Media and Civil Rights 302 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Ruben Salazar 1928-1970 304

Women in Television News 305

AMERICAN SNAPSHOT: "TV and Civil Rights in Watts" 306

AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Christiane Amanpour 1958- 308 Conclusion 309 xvi Contents

PART 5 1 950-Present Media Challenges in a Changing World 311

chapter 11 Advertising and the Selling of Products and Presidents 313 Advertising's Economic Role 315 A Special Rhetoric 315 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Rosser Reeves 1910-1984 316 Colonial Era Advertising 317 Advertising in the Penny Press Period 318 The Advertising Agent 320 Volney Palmer 320 Samuel Pettengill 320 Post-Civil War: Advertising Agents and Advertising Agencies 320 George P. Powell 321 J. Walter Thompson 321 Francis Wayland Ayer 322 Advertising in the Gilded Age 323 Magazines and Advertising 323 Brands and Their Influence 324 AMERICAN MEDIA CLASSIC: Early Ivory Soap Advertisement 325 Patent Medicine and Department Store Advertising 325 Advertising and the Progressive Era 327 Advertising's Self-Regulation 327 The Government Responds and Regulates 328 Radio and Advertising 329 World War II and Public Service Advertising 329 Advertising as a Social Force 330 Television and Advertising 331 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Mary Wells Lawrence 1928- 332 AMERICAN SNAPSHOT: "We Welcomed TV Commercials in the 1950s" 333 The Digital World and Advertising 334 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Lee Clow 1943- 334

Advertising as a Political Force 336 Conclusion 338

chapter 12 The Media, Nixon and the Crises in Credibility 341 Journalists' Changing Values 342 Vietnam 343 America's Road to Vietnam 343 The Media in Vietnam 344 The Press Vs. The Military 345 Contents xvii

AMERICAN SNAPSHOT: "Adverse Media: Remembering Vietnam" 346 The Press Vs. The Public 347 The Press Vs. The Government 348

AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Paul Conrad 1924-2010 350 Watergate 351 The "Pentagon Papers" 352 The Break-In 353 The Cover-Up 354 Nixon and the Press 356 The Frost-Nixon Interviews 357 The Post-Watergate Pardon 359 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Helen Thomas 1920- 360 Conclusion 362

chapter 13 The Media and National Crises 365 Middle East Crisis 366

AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: I. F. Stone 1907-1989 366 The Iran Crisis 368

America's New Dawn—or so the Ads Said 369

AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Ted Turner 1938- 370 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Matt Drudge 1966- 372 The Struggle for Access 374 Grenada and Press Control 376 Iran-Contra Scandal 376 "The New World Order" 377 The Gulf War and Press Access 379 Tabloidization of the Media 380 A New Kind of Enemy 383 Embedded Reporters in Iraq 385 Obama and the Media 388 Conclusion 389

chapter 14 The Internet Revolution and the Information Explosion 391

From Abacus to Computer 392 From Dinosaur to Desktop 395 AMERICAN SNAPSHOT: "Bye, Bye, We Don't Need You Anymore" 396 The IBM & Macintosh Era 397 The Internet 399

AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Bill Gates 1955- 400 The World Wide Web 403 Facebook and Social Networking 404 Twitter, Flickr, and Craigslist in Cyberspace 405 AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Mark Zuckerberg 1984- 406 The World According to Google 407 Videos in Cyberspace: Youtube 409 The First Internet Election 409 The Ethnic and Alternative Media in the Information Age 411 The Black Media 411

AMERICAN MEDIA PROFILE: Steve Jobs 1955-2011 412 The Spanish-Language Media 414 The Gay and Lesbian Media 415 Megamergers and The Future of Media and Democracy 416 Conclusion 417

Endnotes 419

Annotated Bibliography 443

Index 451