Exaggeration, Exaggeration read all about it!

Exaggeration is the strong insidious enemy of Truth

Yellow Journalism is a form of reporting that was bred through the competition of two major New York News Paper’s of the time, the New York Journal and New York World. Both Newspapers engaged in heavy exaggeration in order to gain readers. Through yellow journalism these newspapers created their own cartoon version of the “Yellow Kid”, which was a cartoon started by the comic of “Hogan’s Alley”.

Yellow Kid. Yellow Journalism
There we have it

But was Yellow Journalism merely a color chosen for the article font?

The basis and root of this form of Journalism was exaggeration. Lies, Lies, and more Lies. There wasn’t just one cow, but a field of cows. Yellow Journalism exaggerated real life accounts in order to create a response from the nation and attract readers. After all, who wants to read about one wounded soldier when you can read about the wounded soldier plus his young wife, shot down next to their three year old son and his four year old sister. The readers were drawn to the helpless women and children that were being targeted and emphasized by the media.

It was media that invented facts, which in turn created propaganda to unite and Nationalize the United States against the tapas eating “Enemy”…Espana.

The peak of the Yellow Journalism ice berg hit the empathy in readers-Titanic with the way the sinking of the Maine was reported. According to the first story in Pulitzer’s New York World, the News Paper carried a banner headline that left little doubt about who was responsible: ”Maine Explosion Caused by Bomb or Torpedo?”. The reporting of the Maine caused outrage.

This type of information tugged at the hearts of families all across the nation and created a response. Exactly what the head of these News Papers wanted.

The two News Paper editors, Pulitzer and Hearst were hungry for attention and filed with lust to fabricate any event in order to have the scoop on something that everyone wanted to know. This drive to beat one another was the main basis in a decision that changed the lives of many Americans.

Yellow Journalism is most fondly remembered for the creation of a war. The Spanish American War.

In one article written at the time, a Spanish woman became the victim when the newspaper twisted the truth by allowing the readers believe that the Spanish soldiers had undressed and abused her. The Journal’s headline read: ”Does Our Flag Shield Women?

But with yellow Journalism , it seems as though the the only thing the flag shielded was the truth.

“You furnish the pictures and I will furnish the war” Said Hearst in the New York Times article, “Remember Yellow Journalism”.

The competition was intense and these News paper gods failed in making sure the events and information being printed was accurate. Po-tay-to… P-oh-ta-toh, I guess.

Datelines were faked. Events were faked. Ethics were being drowned in the rum given to bribe officials.

Yellow journalism was the seed that sprouted hate towards the Spanish in the heads of the American’s who purchased these newspapers. Any minor account that had happened or was committed by the Spanish was immediately blown up. The perfect formula for instant outrage.

“Nothing in our news report – words, photos, graphics, sound or video – may be fabricated”- Associated Press News Values and Principles

These are the words of the Journalism bible that are meant to be strictly followed. But are they?

It is no lie to say that Journalism has come very far from the days of “Yellow Journalism”. Reporters(for teh most part) follow ethical guidelines to make sure that the public is in fact receiving first hand accounts on world wide issues. Datelines are honored and video isn’t edited to make it seem like there is a new Victoria’s Secret that opened up on Mars. International Correspondents report from the scene of conflict and bring back authentic interviews and photos.
Integrity in Journalism is a strong ideal but not everyone follows it to the extent that it should be followed. Recently, many reports have been submerging on Journalists who have twisted the truth. The articles have not falsified and exaggerated events as strongly as in the Spanish-American War.. but it cannot be said that lies in journalism are non present.

The excitement of reporting a war is one that Journalists rush to. Sometimes, the journalist wants to have the importance of having been on the front without having to actually be at the front.

War is a topic that tends to be exaggerated in today’s day and age as well as during the time of “Yellow Journalism”.

In the name of truth, 2003 wasn’t the best year for many journalists.

The accounts reported by Brian Williams in the war on Iraq in 2003, are sprinkled with lies and exaggeration. Williams, an NBC news anchor was not in a helicopter brought down by a grenade in the midst of War. This story may have gotten him into the beds of many ladies but not into the hearts of Millions of Americans watching him. The unveiling of deceit encouraged him to step down.

In a 2003 scandal, a New York Times reporter, Jayson Blair, 27, routinely faked articles. Quotes were faked as well as datelines. Houses next to corn fields which he had never even been to, were described with so much detail. His Articles, only a canvas of his imagination. Blair was living the life by publishing articles “written” in New-Delhi or Venice when all along he was sitting in the comfort of his own couch.

The New Republic newspaper also suffered with fake accounts in their reports when their Journalist, Stephen Glass was caught in 1998.

We extended normal human trust to someone who basically lacked a conscience… We busy, friendly folks, were no match for such a willful deceiver… We thought Glass was interested in our personal lives, or our struggles with work, and we thought it was because he cared. Actually, it was all about sizing us up and searching for vulnerabilities. What we saw as concern was actually

Although “Yellow Journalism” has mostly evaporated in the journalism color spectrum, other forms of journalism have also appeared. One being: Tabloid Journalism.

The exaggeration of truth found in tabloid media is one to be for the most part expected. Katie Holmes giving birth to Alien baby doesn’t seem too plausible, but still emphasizes the point that lies continue to be found in journalism. Accounts of exaggeration on the cover of media sells, and this is why some forms of media continue to do so.

Yellow Journalism can also be seen as the result of greed. In developed nations, the thirst to climb the career ladder can drive journalists to exaggerate claims in order to have their story distributed. Many channels and their anchors have resorted to stereotyping, snarky interviewing and sly editing to manipulate their viewers. “Such anchors, engage in “character assassination” and “rank propaganda” to manipulate viewers have completely ruined the credibility of journalists” according to an article in the Oslo Times.

So what are the reasons behind this tendency towards melodrama and exaggeration? The first is old-fashioned sensationalism. We journalists are apt to invest events with that extra degree of importance, and the television camera, which lingers on the dead body and the burnt-out tank, aids that process. But war and reporting real live events is such a serious business that all journalists should strive to be as accurate and unsensational as possible.

For the most part one can agree that “Yellow Journalism” is gone, but traces can still be found. Viewers as well as fellow Journalists must always have their guard up against lies and exaggeration of the truth.

Not So Honest Abe

President Abraham Lincoln used the Media to get what he wanted and climb the political ladder. In a world without facebook, twitter, or television , Lincoln knew how to manipulate the one form of media that was used to get into the heads the people: The Newspaper.

In the article by Wills, on how “Lincoln Played The Press”, the reader can clearly see just how Abraham Lincoln manipulated the press and was a self publicist in order to rise on the political rankings. There were five main stages in Lincolns career and mission to control the press. The first one was infiltration. Abe used the power of infiltration by writing articles for the Whig party. He used his fiancé to write articles posing as “Rebecca” in order to critizise the opposing candidate of the democratic party, James shields.Even though Lincolns position rose, Abe never really stopped contributing anonymous articles. Through co-opting,the second point, Lincoln was able to actually be a part of a newspaper and not just contribute anonymous articles. He helped finance a german newspaper when he noticed that many votes were coming from a German community. The article also states how Lincoln would create debates with his opposing party in order to receive more advertisement. Lincoln created many favors in return for positive press by buying off which is Wills third idea in “How lincoln Played The Press”.Repression of News to be printed was what Will’s mentions as the fourth tactic of Playing the Press. Lincoln created and “leaked”…

oops!

letters and held public speaches in order to have those be printed in the press and distributed. With this method, he cut out the intermediary, Will’s last point in the article.

According to the commentary on “Lincoln’s War With the Press”, written by Fredd Hiatt, politicians in the time of the civil War created tension by subjecting their oponents in order to attract coverage. Lincoln knew that public sentiment was everything and acted upon this idea by creating his own anonymous articles and “drama” to be reported on by the newspapers in which he funded or showered with favours. “With his dramatic letters of 1862 and 1863 . . . Lincoln in some ways wrote the big three New York editors out of the equation when it came to molding public opinion,” Holzer writes

Prior to the civil war, journalists found it difficult to find and secure a job.Journalists also faced shockingly low wages, just another reason for accepting bribes. The article “ How The Civil War Gave Birth to Journalism in the Nation’s Captial” written by Paul Fahri, explains how all of the drama and excitemenet created by the war, gave young journalists something to write about. War was exciting and reporting it made journalists feel important. The journalists who acted as correspondents during the war, even chose to remain in the nation after the war.

News at the time seemed like it should have been on ABC’s show Desperate Housewives,a television series filled with lies and gossip. The article written by Fahri shows one how some of the information printed by news papers wasn’t the most honest of news . “They printed almost every rumor you can imagine,” says Mark J. Stegmaier, a historian at Cameron University in Oklahoma.

What was interesting at the time, and would be seen as very innapropriate in today’s press was the relationship that political figures had with the news… the people in charge , that would eventually be writing stories about these figures. “They courted and wrote flattering accounts of political players”

People working in the press were continuously bribed and offered stake holidings in the government as well as better jobs. Its only obvious that the newspapers then had to write favourable accounts of their leaders. Afterall, you can’t bite the hand that feeds you now can you.

What also did not help in keeping news “true” and unbiased, was the fact that news was censored through telegraphs operated by war censors. These war censors would make sure that the news favored the North even causing journalists writing for democratic newspapers to give up home seeing as their articles probably would have landed in the trash bin.

I do think that the relationship between political figures and the Press has changed in comparison to when Abraham Lincoln was in the White house.A good thing.

The media is not as biased as it once once. There are too many different forms of media and different sources for it to be so. The newspaper, the sole form of “mass communication” was easy to control since it was only one form of media. Anyone is allowed to have an opinion nowadays. Just imagine having to control facebook, television, radio, print, etc. That would be like living in North Korea.. and we see how well that has played out. There are also many more rules that have been set especially by the Associated Press that have instilled morals into journalism. Gifts over 25 euro cannot be accepted according to the rules and guidelines of the Associated press ( so Abe’s tactic of inviting journalists over for tea and offering jobs to poorly paid Journalists would NOT have worked) and most importantly, anyone working in a campaighn or running for a political figure cannot work as a journalist.

The reporters, naturally, repaid their sponsors with favorable coverage, leading one senator, James Doolittle of Wisconsin, to complain that “great men and heroes are manufactured here” by blatant press bribery. What Gill stated in his article that “Editors ran their own candidates—in fact they ran for office themselves, and often continued in their post at the paper while holding office” would never have occurred in today’s day and age. Journalists for leading newspapers are meant to report the news that is happening without putting their own personal opinion in the article and they are not meant to praise or bad mouth a certain political figure.

Truth and trust in Journalism is the most important thing. Newspapers around the time of the Civil War seemed like a bible for exaggerations and gossip. Nowadays, a Journalist cannot just sit back and lie to media consumers. This is apparent with what is happening with Nbc’s Brian Williams. One cannot fluff up one’s feathers and fake journalistic war accounts only to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Poor, Poor Brian.

What was very similar with today and back then is the power of the Media. Certain things shown on media such as the interview with George W. H Bush which was shown on national TV can either make or break someones political career.

How many times to people say things with a specific purpose? A lot.

Another aspect that was similar to today is that Lincoln created certain scenarious for the press… as they say all publicity is good publicity, political figures now and then created certain stunts just so that the gossip would be spread. This is evident through lincoln’s creation of the “scrapbook” published by the Chicago times and Chicago Tribune.

There are many things that can be said that are similar between how the press was run during the Civil War and how the press runs today. For the most part,we can say and be thankful that there are enough laws to make sure that the press stays unbiased and honest.But… As in the case of everything, there are exceptions.