What is Black and White and Yellow all Over ?
Does the title remind you of the childhood riddle, " what is black and white and read ( red ) all over". As children we triumphantly said " newspapers" to a playmate not knowing the answer. In recent years an apt question, among others, might be what is "black and yellow and bled all over " What is bled is the precious reputation or hard earned career of anyone victimized by the innuendo and sensationalism of today's version of yellow journalism.
The term dates back to the last decade of the 19th century referring to the no holds barred if not vicious war between William Randolph Hearst ( New York Journal ) and Joseph Pulitzer ( New York World). After yellowing the San Francisco Examiner,Hearst moved to New York, purchased the Journal and raided the World staff including Richard Outcault the cartoonist for the comic strip "the yellow kid". Pulitzer countered with a comic strip of the same name and competed witrh Hearst for the most outrageous coverage of sensational stories. Indeed, both newspapers practiced jingoism to such an extreme that historians credit them with inciting the Spanish-American war of 1898 and branded their journalistic practices as yellow journalism.
This is not to say that the 1890's was preceded by an era of highly professional journalism. On the contrary, it was the practice since the beginning of the republic, spreading like an infectious disease from the big city papers to all others in varying degrees. Notable exceptions are the Wall St. Journal and the Christian Science Monitor. For a century the old gray lady, the New York Times, lived up to its motto " only the news thats fit to print" . In recent years the Times has been jolted by false and contrived reporting, a consistent bias against conservatism in general and George W. Bush in particular. The Times coverage of the Abu Graib prison story is illustrative of their succumbing to the tide of yellow journalism now imbedded in both the print and electronic media.
Sadly, since the Viet Nam war the print and electronic media have added a new dimension to yellow journalism. They have chosen sides in the political debate of our country, openly and defiantly, slanting news reports against anything and anyone conservative; in the meanwhile maintaining
total silence on the miscues of all non-conservatives. They themselves are the single biggest contributor to the rise of the alternative media to an extent that threatens their very survival.
Significantly, traditional media practitioners seem puzzled as to why they are losing their previously unchallenged influence on public opinion. So far there is little if any indication that traditional media can reform itself. Perhaps they are similar to the least productive, least effective persons in a partcular work force who are shocked when they are fired.
The founding fathers included freedom of the press as a first amendment prohibition against government control of information and inquiry. The implicit assumption was an equivalent level of obligation to properly discharge their resposibility to serve the public trust. Unfortunately, that has been a problem from day one, only getting worse as the years, decades and centuries have marched on. A particular public poll seems tlo be the upper limit on their ability to dig up and provide truthful, accurate information to the public on a specific subject. They demand all kinds of special treatment under the guise of the public's right to know. Their behavior is now impeding justice because some people are unwilling to testify in court given the mudraking they must endure. Recently a florida schoolteacher went scott free after admitedly seducing a 14 year old boy because the parents and the boy feared the fallout from the media coverage. It is seriously sad that one of the guarantors of liberty the founding fathers envisioned has evolved in to a guarantor of the erosion of liberty and freedom.
The term dates back to the last decade of the 19th century referring to the no holds barred if not vicious war between William Randolph Hearst ( New York Journal ) and Joseph Pulitzer ( New York World). After yellowing the San Francisco Examiner,Hearst moved to New York, purchased the Journal and raided the World staff including Richard Outcault the cartoonist for the comic strip "the yellow kid". Pulitzer countered with a comic strip of the same name and competed witrh Hearst for the most outrageous coverage of sensational stories. Indeed, both newspapers practiced jingoism to such an extreme that historians credit them with inciting the Spanish-American war of 1898 and branded their journalistic practices as yellow journalism.
This is not to say that the 1890's was preceded by an era of highly professional journalism. On the contrary, it was the practice since the beginning of the republic, spreading like an infectious disease from the big city papers to all others in varying degrees. Notable exceptions are the Wall St. Journal and the Christian Science Monitor. For a century the old gray lady, the New York Times, lived up to its motto " only the news thats fit to print" . In recent years the Times has been jolted by false and contrived reporting, a consistent bias against conservatism in general and George W. Bush in particular. The Times coverage of the Abu Graib prison story is illustrative of their succumbing to the tide of yellow journalism now imbedded in both the print and electronic media.
Sadly, since the Viet Nam war the print and electronic media have added a new dimension to yellow journalism. They have chosen sides in the political debate of our country, openly and defiantly, slanting news reports against anything and anyone conservative; in the meanwhile maintaining
total silence on the miscues of all non-conservatives. They themselves are the single biggest contributor to the rise of the alternative media to an extent that threatens their very survival.
Significantly, traditional media practitioners seem puzzled as to why they are losing their previously unchallenged influence on public opinion. So far there is little if any indication that traditional media can reform itself. Perhaps they are similar to the least productive, least effective persons in a partcular work force who are shocked when they are fired.
The founding fathers included freedom of the press as a first amendment prohibition against government control of information and inquiry. The implicit assumption was an equivalent level of obligation to properly discharge their resposibility to serve the public trust. Unfortunately, that has been a problem from day one, only getting worse as the years, decades and centuries have marched on. A particular public poll seems tlo be the upper limit on their ability to dig up and provide truthful, accurate information to the public on a specific subject. They demand all kinds of special treatment under the guise of the public's right to know. Their behavior is now impeding justice because some people are unwilling to testify in court given the mudraking they must endure. Recently a florida schoolteacher went scott free after admitedly seducing a 14 year old boy because the parents and the boy feared the fallout from the media coverage. It is seriously sad that one of the guarantors of liberty the founding fathers envisioned has evolved in to a guarantor of the erosion of liberty and freedom.
posted by sam carrubba at 1:52 PM
1 Comments:
excellent post.
I would agree that we are seeing a rise in yellow journalism. However, I think that the underlying cause is a decay in overall morality. We seem to have lost our moral compass in the United States, and the natural outgrowth of that is a lurid interest in the failures of others. For some reason it assuages our own guilt to read about the amorality of others, be it real or imagine. Therefore all lurid details and stories are freely discussed in all different forums. Sad, but we can take hope that perhaps we are already beginning to see a change. I hope that in response to the rise of the internet, the MSM may try and carve out reliability as an information source as their niche. However, to do that they will have to abandon their current ideas of "tell stories" and instead relate facts.
I hope you continue to update your blog, and I have voted for it on Realclearpolitics.com. May I suggest that you turn on the Atom syndication, so that I can read it via the Atom feed?
I think that I may cite your article in a couple of days, time allowing on my blog
http://foxholephilosopher.blogspot.com
so keep you eye open, and feel free to comment as well. Again this is an extremely insightful and well written commentary.
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