Chapter 10: Exposing Joe McCarthy

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   The Cold War was a time of fear. The worlds two greatest superpowers fought for dominance and the advent of nuclear weapons meant that open war between them could devastate the earth. Despite the severity of the situation there were those who took advantage of this paranoia for their own personal agendas. The 1950's gave rise to Joseph McCarthy a senator who rose to power by accusing his enemies of being communists. Normally such baseless claims would be rebuked but the media failed to actually check these claims. That is except for one man.

   Edward R. Murrow was a successful radio journalist who used his television series See It Now to show people that McCarthy was not some heroic crusader but a tyrant using the threat of communism to get his way. Murrow took full advantage of televisions visual nature to show the audience the people who were being unfairly harmed by these witch hunts and pettiness of their inciter. The public was able to see McCarthyism for the ridiculous thuggery it was and McCarthy himself was stripped of his power by the senate.

   I believe that this chapter is more relevant than ever in this day and age where lies have become so commonplace due to the medias failure to actually check if what their reporting is true and letting political bullies get away with scaring people into submission with stories of "socialism". If the media cannot remember the mistake it made once before then they are doomed to repeat them.

Chapter 6: Muckraking

Virginia Westerns Community College

    In the late 1800's and early 1900's corporate power was at an all time high with big business having near limitless power and control over the government. The common worker was poor and had no way to make the injustices he suffered known. It was during this time however, that a kind of journalist known as a "muckraker" came to be.

    The term muckraker was coined by President Roosevelt to describe reporters who focus on the less glamorous elements of society. The muckrakers had a profound impact by exposing how deep the corruption of the gilded age ran, with products known to be unsafe being sold to populace and bribes being given all the way up to the senate. These giants of journalism; Steffens, McClure, Tarbell, Sinclair and Bok shown a light on these foul practices and created real, lasting social change that we still benefit from today.

   This chapter represents something that is lost in much of today's journalism; the will to say what is necessary. Today we move once more toward unregulated corporate power taking advantage of the common man but unlike then much of our news is owned by these same companies so they don't report on their immoral practices. While there are still those who will report on these injustices I fear for their ability to get this information to the common people.

Chapter 1: Sowing the Seeds of Revolution

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    America is a nation built upon a revolution. Revolutions however, do not start on their own. Convincing the populace to rebel requires people who can inspire. The spurring of the colonies into revolution can be traced back to two writers who used the power of the press to rally people to their cause.; John Adams and Thomas Paine.

    John Adams was a writer for the Boston Gazette who used the paper to spread his anti-British message. He would write stories that villainized  the British soldiers, claiming them to be criminals and drunkards. He turned an accidental fight between British soldiers and protestors into the Boston massacre claiming that the soldiers killed the colonists in a planned attack, going so far as to have a drawing of the event made so that even the illiterate would know what happened. However Adams had no compunction about falsifying stories in order to advance his agenda, which is a major breach in journalism ethics. Despite his stories not being truthful they succeeded in riling people up and pushed them towards revolution.

     The other journalist that is credited with inciting the revolution is Thomas Paine. Paine was a writer for the short lived Pennsylvania Magazine who went on to write Common Sense an essay that is said to be responsible for inspiring hundreds of thousands of colonists to support independence. Paine's writing was also used to boost troop morale, with Crisis essays that promised glory to those who joined the revolutionaries and shame to those who didn't. Paine's ability to appeal to the masses allowed him to shape the future of his country.