Executive Reading: Infamous Scribblers
From June 2006
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Burns credits the start of the American Revolution as a true turning point for the press. When war was finally declared, “It was newspapers that kept the colonies informed of the progress and of the fighting in a way that letters and patterers could not have done, and in the process united the colonies in a way that was beyond the ability of the jerry-built wartime government.” Most newspapers made an effort to report accurately and factually for the first time in their history. Burns suggests that “Perhaps the importance of the press to the outcome of the war can be exaggerated, but not easily and not by much.”
The unity of purpose, however, was short-lived. Whereas the papers’ role before the war had been to propagandize for or against American independence, they now directed their considerable bias toward or against the newly formed American government and its heavyweights, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and especially George Washington (whose nickname for journalists gives this book its title). Burns also examines the sobering effects of the Sedition Act of 1798, which suppressed editorial criticism of the government, Congress, or the president in speech or in print.
What’s surprising throughout is that although there are far more rigorous standards (and legal obligations) for truthful and unbiased reporting today, certain aspects of our media forebearers — the ideological sparring, the character assassinations, the partisanship to the exclusion of all reason — ring true today in many mainstream and alternative media.
“Infamous Scribblers” may be a cautionary tale, but it’s also an informative, amusing and important read.
The unity of purpose, however, was short-lived. Whereas the papers’ role before the war had been to propagandize for or against American independence, they now directed their considerable bias toward or against the newly formed American government and its heavyweights, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and especially George Washington (whose nickname for journalists gives this book its title). Burns also examines the sobering effects of the Sedition Act of 1798, which suppressed editorial criticism of the government, Congress, or the president in speech or in print.
What’s surprising throughout is that although there are far more rigorous standards (and legal obligations) for truthful and unbiased reporting today, certain aspects of our media forebearers — the ideological sparring, the character assassinations, the partisanship to the exclusion of all reason — ring true today in many mainstream and alternative media.
“Infamous Scribblers” may be a cautionary tale, but it’s also an informative, amusing and important read.
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