Number of words: 117 Another now-famous example of error came a year later when the New York Times printed story after incorrect story about how the Bolsheviks in Russia were being soundly defeated. When the revolution was successful, the paper had a lot of backpedalling to do. Though errors and outright fabrications were on their … Read more

Number of words: 398 THE SPANISH -AMERICAN WAR of 1898 and the Journal’s boisterous support for it would be another key death blow to the “journalism of action.” (Though support for the war was widespread among newspapers of the day, there were marked differences in how they behaved. Hearst’s paper managed to distinguish itself by … Read more

Number of words: 195 ‘How do you like the Journal’s war?’ asked the front page of William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal for two days in 1898. This evocative question likely elicited a common response from his readers of the day: ‘Just fine.’In April of that year, war broke out in Cuba between Spain, who … Read more

Number of words: 402 The newsbooks and early newspapers of the seventeenth century extolled accuracy and facts with rhetorical flair, but what they published in reality had no semblance of truth and accuracy. Newspapers peppered their pages with scandalous, often totally false accounts worthy of today’s most sensational tabloids, and political and religious partisanship was rampant. … Read more

Number of words: 128 The printing press enabled news to reach a larger audience at a vastly reduced cost, though it was not the death knell for oral news exchanged in coffeehouses, at home, and in city streets. In the sixteenth century, news was still being called out by criers in the streets and recited … Read more

Number of words: 123 While all people enjoy good news and gossip, it is accurate news that matters most to society. The desire for factual information is an inseparable component of news and has emerged as the foundation of modern journalism. It is also the foundation upon which people and societies make important decisions and … Read more