The Atlanta Review of Journalism History
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ISSN: 2151-7967 The Atlanta Review of Journalism History A Refereed Annual Journal published by the Journalism History Society of Georgia State University Volume 12 Georgia State Spring 2015 University ISSN: 2151-7967 The Atlanta Review of Journalism History Volume 12 Spring 2015 ◊◊ Carrie Lynn Whitney Managing Editor Jareth Muñoz Assistant Editor Lindsey Morgan Green Assistant Editor Seifu Aman Adem Assistant Editor Leonard Ray Teel Faculty Advisor and General Editor Cover Design by John Daigle Printed by SS Print and Marketing Norcross, GA All correspondence should be directed to: The Atlanta Review of Journalism History Department of Communication Georgia State University 25 Park Place, NE, Suite 1109 Atlanta, GA 30303 404-413-5600 iv The Atlanta Review of Journalism History Honor Roll of Editors since its prototype issue in 1996: 1996 Mindy Duncan 1997-2001 Lisa V. Daigle 2001-2002 Rachel Ramos Adam E. Vance Esther Sada Ted Koopersmith Stacy L. Evans Zehra Mehdi-Barlas 2003-2006 Frances Masamba Sarah Halim Katie Hawkins Katherine Skinner Christopher Dunn Jason Smith 2007-2012 Farooq Kperogi Jennifer Rankine Alexandra Lukas Emma Harger Kiana Nicholas Madeline Grayson 2012-2015 May Fawaz-Huber Laura Saavedra Jareth Munoz Rosa Felix Jessica Vega Jin Zhao 2015 Carrie Lynn Whitney Seifu Aman Adem Lindsey Morgan Green v EDITORIAL BOARD The Atlanta Review of Journalism History is particularly thankful for the expertise of the scholars of American media history listed below. Their devotion to the field of study and their generous donation of time and talent have been essential contributions to the quality of the essays in the Review. James Aucoin, University of South Alabama David Bulla, Zayed University Ross Collins, North Dakota State University John Coward, University of Tulsa Patrick Cox, University of Texas-Austin David R. Davies, University of Southern Mississippi Giovanna Dell’Orto, University of Minnesota Wallace Eberhard, University of Georgia, Emeritus Mark Edge, Sam Houston State University Fred Fedler, University of Central Florida Frank Fee, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Kathy Fuller-Seeley, University of Texas-Austin Karla K. Gower, University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa William Huntzicker, St. Cloud State University Paulette Kilmer, University of Toledo Meg Lamme, University of Alabama Terry Leuck, University of Akron Kimberly Mangun, University of Utah Lisa Parcell, Wichita State University Kittrell Rushing, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Reed Smith, Georgia Southern University David Spencer, University of Western Ontario Bernell Tripp, University of Florida Debbie Van Tuyll, Georgia Regents University Patrick Washburn, Ohio University vi CONTENTS Editorial Board v An Editorial Comment vii Acknowledgements x Anne Corbett Roberts 1 Veiled Politics: Legitimating the Burqa Ban in the French Press Erik Clabaugh 38 The Evolution of a Massacre in Newspaper Depictions of the Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee, 1876-1891 Erika Pribanic-Smith 66 “Political Demagogues and Over-zealous Partizans”: Tariff of Abominations and Secession Rhetoric in the 1828 South Carolina Press Jeffrey Clarke Rowell 97 Moses Fleetwood Walker and the Establishment of a Color Line in Major League Baseball, 1884-1887 Jerri Lynn Mann 123 Getting Lincoln Elected: Joseph Medill, The Chicago Press and Tribune, and the Nomination of Abraham Lincoln, 1860 Miglena Sandmeier 143 The Bulgarian Horrors through the Eyes of an American Journalist: Januarius Aloysius MacGahan’s Role in the Liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire, 1876-1878 vii AN EDITORIAL COMMENT The editors of this 12th issue of the Atlanta Review of Journalism History are pleased to present six essays, instead of our usual four. All the authors have been presented their research at academic conferences; their subjects range in historical periods from 1820s South Carolina to 21st Century France. A common issue is the press coverage of controversy and conflict. Anne Corbett Roberts examines the ethnic and religious friction in France surrounding a controversial law banning the wearing of the burqa in public. Erik Clabaugh provides a detailed reexamination of a massacre that concluded the U.S. war against the Sioux tribes. Jeffrey Clarke Rowell reveals how racism in baseball 1880s American caused the professional league to order segregation nationally, blocking African- Americans until 1947. Erika Pribanic-Smith provides a preview of a divisive issue that predisposed South Carolina against the U.S. Congress more than three decades before the Civil War. Jerri Lynn Mann shows how one editor of one newspaper can be credited with elevating Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. And Miglena Sandmeier uncovers the “liberator” of her native Bulgaria whose name had been erased from the country’s history. Anne Corbett Roberts’ award-winning essay provides valuable insight and context for the controversy in France concerning its Muslim population. Arguments in Parliament over the law to ban the wearing of the burqa in public revealed the depth and nature of the cultural and religious issues. As Ms. Roberts found through extensive research here and in France, “By establishing the act of wearing the burqa or niqab as a threat to ‘republican values’ in France, the French press “created a rhetorical situation in which the limitation of religious expression could be legally justified.” Her research paper, written while she was an M.A. student at Georgia State University, was presented in 2011 at the national AEJMC conference in St. Louis where she received the International Division’s Top Student Paper Award. After graduating, she became the Program Assistant to Educational Programs at the Carter Center, and currently is a policy analyst at the Southern Office of the Council of State Governments. Erik Clabaugh’s essay examined U.S. press coverage of a national problem in 19th Century America: conflicts with the Sioux Indians before and after the massacre in 1890 at Wounded Knee Creek. “Prior viii to, and immediately following, the massacre,” Clabaugh noted, “the Sioux were depicted as a particularly savage, yet innately intelligent, threat to white society. Such portrayals were in keeping with what Juan Gonzalez and Joseph Torres have described as a dominant “white racial narrative” that was put forward by the nation’s press and worked to reinforce racial biases, inflame group hatred, and justify discriminatory government policies as well as the country’s unrelenting westward expansion.” Clabaugh’s research, presented at the national conference of the American Journalism Historians Association in Kansas City in 2011, “calls attention to an early moment of national self-reflection and highlights the beginning of a gradual shift in the public perception of Wounded Knee that continues to this day.” He wrote the paper while an M.A. student at Georgia State University; he is now studying here for the Ph.D. in communication. Racism in 19th Century America was also the key issue in Jeffrey Rowell’s essay on the origin of segregation in professional baseball in the 1880s. His research led him to the outstanding catcher Moses Fleetwood Walker who became a professional player in 1883 when newspapers did not pay as much attention to his race. By 1887 he was one of seven talented black players. That year, white players threatened to quit “on account of the colored element” causing their league to prohibit “the employment of colored players but its clubs.” The segregation of professional baseball continued for 60 years, until 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Rowell’s research was presented in 2014 at the 22nd Symposium on the 19th Century Press, Civil War and Free Expression at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. He is currently completing his M.A. degree at Georgia State University. Politically-charged rhetoric in the South that prefigured Southern secession is the focus of Erika Pribanic-Smith’s award-winning study of six newspapers across South Carolina in 1828. “State rights rhetoric largely consumed the southern newspapers’ pages,” she noted, “mirroring and in some cases amplifying what occurred in other political forums.” In South Carolina, newspapers “lashed out against” Congress’ Tariff of 1828 as unconstitutional, some even urging “disunion.” Dr. Pribanic-Smith’s essay, part of her Ph.D. dissertation while at the University of Alabama, won the Best Faculty Paper Award in 2012 at the Southeast Colloquium of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in Blacksburg, Virginia. Currently, she is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Texas at Arlington and is serving this year as President of the American Journalism ix Historians Association. Jerri Lynn Mann’s research documented “the level of influence that journalists had on political outcomes”—specifically Horace Greeley in New York and Joseph Medill in Chicago. Focusing on Medill, Mann documented how his Chicago Tribune crusaded continuously for Abraham Lincoln to win the contested Republican nomination for President in 1860 and then the Presidency. Among other methods, the Tribune printed Lincoln’s speeches verbatim. Meanwhile, Medill “corresponded with Lincoln throughout the election, offering support and advice.” Medill exemplified “how the power and influence of the media essentially manipulated politics during the 1800s.” Mann presented her research at the 2014 Southeast Colloquium of the American Journalism Historians Association at Panama City Beach, Florida.