Dorothy Thompson

 

Dorothy Thompson born July 9, 1893 and died January 30, 1961. Dorothy was an American journalist and broadcaster in which she reached a huge audience in the late 1930s. At that time she was seen as "aggressive" however she got her message across because she became a prominent American journalist and radio personality. She was one of the few women news commentators on the radio in the 1930s. She had a thrice-weekly column in The New York Herald Tribune that was published in about 130 papers throughout the country. Her estimated audience reach was ten million people.

 In 1931 she interviewed Adolph Hitler and wrote an article "I saw Hitler, warning of the threat he posed." The interview request took time to get approved but it finally did in 1931 however under strict rules. In which she could only ask him three questions and had to be submitted a full day in advance. Her weekly broadcast talked about the truth of Nazism, she wanted American involvement in the war. Her purpose was to warn Americans about the threat that Nazi Germany posed to the democracy and to Europe's Jews. She actually became the first American journalist to be deported form Nazi Germany in 1934. 

Dorothy was married to a Hungarian Jew and had various jewish acquaintance in middle Europe. Dorothy career as a columnist and broadcaster started after Hitler deported Dorothy from Germany. She had also disagreed with fascism in Europe and campaign against it for the victims. She seems to distinguish between bad and good and fight for the right cause even if it doesn't affect her at all. In 1939 she was on the cover of TIME magazine and was named the second most influential woman in the country after Eleanor Roosevelt. After 1920 she became anti-Zionist and went against the creation of the state of Israel and through that several newspapers dropped her column. 

Good luck and Good night

 Good luck and good night is a drama and history movie from 2005. Some of the cast consist of George Clooney, Tom McCarthy and Patricia Clarkson. What is meant by the phrase Good Luck and good night is referring to the communist scare of early 1950s that media had to revolt against the censorship due to fear of communism in the United States. The movie started at a dinner party where Ed Murrow giving a speech about journalism was only concerned in reporting the good stories not the ones that speak the awful truth. Ed Murrow is basically bad mouthing journalism expressing how they are not doing a good job.   

The McCarthy era when personal civil liberties were stepped on by the government through unnecessary conviction without trial or representation. Individuals were concerned about their welfare so they could do anything to get by. People began not trusting the government due to the unlawful treatments and governments exploitation threats of terrorist attacks in the Cold War. During that time the administration of the government was all hush-hush and would not share any necessary information to citizens. The government would intentionally read a message transmitted through telephone without the permission of all parties. Corruption through dishonesty and illegal behavior by the people who worked for the government and had power. The government would provide misinformation to citizens. There was a practice of appointing friends and associates to position of authority even without the qualifications for the job. 

The overall lesson of the movie is to show that overcoming something that feels impossible such as the government even though they have so much power compared to the average person, it can still be down through consistency and determination. "It shows how a small group dedicated to the forces for honesty and integrity overcame great odds and brought down a corrupt government bureaucracy." The movie ends with concluding the speech from the beginning of the movie saying "Television can continue to be mindless programming that distracts the public from the real issues, or an opportunity to inform and educate people to make a better world." Considering that the the person that was giving the speech was at the dinner party in his honor for his contribution to television, it says a lot about the how television can be used for progression rather than just entertainment. Television could make a big impact on the societal outlets, views, and influence change. A new face of journalism could thrive through media production and create a more justified nation by staying updated on important news. 

Journalism Heroes; The Modern Era: Women's pages

 Women's Pages

Women pages was first appeared out in New York in the 1890s and it then other newspapers that covered society, food and fashion adopted it. It was essential to have a women's pages in their newspaper. Women's pages was exactly what it's name entailed, a section in the newspaper dedicated to woman themselves. Written by women and read by women. However the only things that were covering in the women's pages was no other than the typically chatter women's in the 1890s should have only been talking about. Clothes, baking, shopping and cleaning. Women's pages were covered with headlines such as "Crystal White Soap, for the laundry, and "Simple frocks for local graduates" also "Feminine chat". It was supposed to be like how the sport sections is for men but the women's pages were for the women. Not at all was it supposed to be looked at as if it was including the women in the news to keep them informed by instead to making more money by widening their audience. 

By the 1950s and 1960s Dorthy Journey, Vivian Castleberry and Marj Paxson were journalist that became the women's pages editors. People considered women's pages as "fake news" because they were writing about birth control and abortion. Their news was considered fluff in which everyone already knew those issues were common in society. It would have been more juicy news if while reporting it they tried to change it. Another comment about women's pages was that "They were doing good journalism, they were just wearing hats and white gloves because that's what society required of them." -Kim Voss 

Through the growing feminist movement women's issues were important as the news that made the front page. Journey, Castleberry and Paxson amplified women's issues. Covering battered women, new economic models for childcare and the spread of feminism in depth then any front page on a newspaper. Through this outspoken bold move from these women's pages editors, there was a transition that changed the organization of the newspaper from men and women to work and leisure. This was a big deal because there wasn't an obvious separation between sexes. The first paper to achieve the transition was the Washington Post on January 6, 1969. Ben Bradlee was the editor at the time and his reason for changing the organization was to "treat women as people and not as appendages to men". 

Collateral Murder- Wiki Leaks

During the first international war, more commonly known as WWI there were many Americans that were anti-war. The progressive era, 70% people were against the war. The Espionage Act was government employees who spoke against the war were thrown in jail. Government employees who spoke against the war were called whistle blowers. It was expected that the employees work with the government that did corrupted things and not speak against it. During Bush’s administration whistleblowers were thrown in jail for 7 years. The Sedition Act punished those who were anti-war but through a private sector. In 1989 congress passed the Whistleblower Protection Act to “strengthen and improve protection for the rights of federal employees, to prevent reprisals, and to help eliminate wrongdoing within the government.” One-way whistleblowers were protected per se was being able to release information while keeping their identity protected. However, the government created other laws that didn’t give federal employees much protection, also found ways to ruined their lives. 

 

Wiki-Leaks is an international and non-profit organization that publishes news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Bradley Manning, worked for the army and leaked corrupt information about the government to Julian Assange the founder of WikiLeaks. Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified videos of torture to WikiLeaks a 3^rd party publisher. The video we saw in class was a United States helicopter in Iraq shooting a van that resulting in 12 individuals at the scene dying except two children who were injured in the van. Two of those individuals were journalist, Namir Nour El Deen and Saeed Chmagh, who worked for the Reuters news agency. The video was unedited footage from the point of view from the helicopter cockpit. You can hear the soldiers demanding to fire and urging for permission to fire. It sounded like they enjoyed it based on my opinion. However, this was one of various videos that were uploaded to WikiLeaks and is also now uploaded to YouTube. 

 

A journalist from Australia who was in London at the time. Collateral murder WikiLeaks Iraq Julian Assange was sentence for 120 years due to USA government. Ecuador offered Julian asylum, so his life consisted of being trapped in Ecuador for 7 years. However, with the Extradition treaty which is the United States has treaties with more than 100 countries and the agreement various from country to country. If a person who has been charged with a crime flees to another country, they can be trial in that country if there is an extradition treaty. The treaty is a way is that the United States could reached into another country and ignore another’s countries rules, basically kidnapping. Since Julian was in hiding in Ecuador and nowhere to be found, the government went after his family through harassments. A supreme court case Bartnkiki v. Vopper: A third public publisher is not liable for information obtained illegally if the third public publisher was not involved in the illegal activity. A journalist passing it to the government is susceptible to punishment. 

The government tried to accused Julian Assange of being part of it by accusing him of hacking the government to get information. The British violated due process by holding Julian Assange in solitary confinement without an actual charge. The government did that in an attempt for Julian Assange to die in jail. Since the government couldn’t use the Espionage act and Sedition act so they tried to use a false rape allegation. Through the false rape allegations, even though the woman stated that it was not rape the government was producing a chilling effect. The government knew they couldn’t win legally so instead they ruined his life. As of April 20th 2022, A British judge in London formally approved the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States to face spying charges, However the case is now up to Britain's interior minister for a decision. 

Journalism Heroes; The early years : Girl Stunt Movement

     Girl Reporter set an unprecedented role for women; woman beginning to be reporters. Girl Reporter did not follow the rules, they made their own rules, fought for what they believe was righteous and went to extreme lengths to unveil the injustices in society. There's nothing more untamed than a woman going undercover to expose urban ills, scams, child labor and cheats of the world. It was the perfect undercover disguised; being a woman. As a woman no one would expect them to put themselves in dangerous situations, let alone make history. Nellie Bly the first woman reporter was driven to go out wondering in search of hidden truth and to share it with the world. Nellie Bly created the Girl Stunt Movement with the 3 fearless American Pioneers of Investigative Journalism. Winifred Black and Eva Valesh followed Nellie in her footsteps. 

    Elizabeth Jane Cochran childhood was filled with men who failed her time and time again. At six years old her father died, leaving her all alone. Eventually her mother remarried to an ungrateful man. Elizabeth's step father was an abusive man that was incapable of supporting the family. Growing up in this environment and watching her mother suffer abusive treatment left a lasting impression on the idea of independence. Elizabeth grew up to rely on her self and to not take abuse from no one. Elizabeth became a teacher for a while however as a woman she did not get paid much and therefore decided to go into business herself. Taking matters into her own hands she was able to land a job in reporting and writing. 

    Elizabeth Jane Cochran then became Nellie Bly aka Girl Reporter. As a Girl Reporter she made it her duty to expose the wrongs of society in an effort to end suffering of individuals. She went undercover on a journey to make those wrongs right and to fight for woman rights. "It was women casting their lessons of truth." She went undercover in factories, sweatshops, and doctors offices. She discovered that while abortion was illegal if woman would sob and pay about $1000-$6000 worth today than the doctor would preform the abortion. She also showed the world behind the scenes on woman work environment with less the pay.  Nellie got her herself committed into an asylum and discovered how the patients were being mistreated. She published "Ten Days in the Madhouse" in the Pulitzer's New York World, newspaper. Their reporting led to changes supported by congress. 

   Girl reporters was a way of journalism that made woman's voices roar. Nellie to it upon herself to speak up for woman. There has been various books written about the Girl stunt reporters and the role it had in amplifying unheard women voices. When woman where beginning to take more of a role in working, smoking and going out unaccompanied by a man. Girl Reporters set the way for woman to be their true versions of themselves. Winifred Black was a female reporter that wrote human interest stories with drama that made the readers weep. Winifred covered murder trials, interviewing famous people, natural disasters, juvenile courts, cotton mills, canners and more. Eva Valesh also following Nellie footsteps wrote about working conditions. Eva supported labor causes and her reports inspired a successful strike for better pay and working conditions. As it comes to show through history that woman voices are just as important and loud as everyone else. 

Anti-War Voices

Anti-War Voices 

    On December 15, 1791 the first amendment was adopted into the United States Constitution preventing the government from making laws that revoked the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of press and some others. The first amendment is upheld on most cases unless an individual uses their first amendment right to go against the government. Ever since there have been various laws, doctrines and court cases demonstrating that the first amendment is not always a way of protection for individuals to express their concerns.

 Prior Restraint, State action doctrine, Censorship is a way in which the first amendment can be limited. Prior Restraint is when the government tries to stop an individual from speaking or writing before one has done it. State action doctrine is action not from the government, so therefore there cannot be a constitutional claim because only the government can violate constitutional rights not a private actor. However the individual who's voice is being silence rights is still being restricted. Censorship is when a private actor tries to stop an individual from speaking or writing before they have done it. In this case the government is not responsible instead a private actor such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. These social media platforms can ban an individual from posting to millions of people. Time placement manner restraints allows for assembly however there are a time and a place as well as rules that must be followed. For example a permit for a rally must be obtained. During rallies speech and expressive action is protected. What is not protected under the first amendment is destruction of property, assaulting police officers, trespassing, incitement, fighting words and true threats. 

    The Aliens + Sedition Act of 1798 made it a crime to critic the government. It did not allow individuals to cause an overthrow of the government. As the years go on the sedition acts would fade away then new ones would be established and would punished based on pure speech. In 1861 the Civil War resulted in the suspension of Habeas Corpus. Government was not allowed to detained an individual in jail without any charges. Prior to this journalism were being detained because the government was trying to silence their anti-war voices and if they were behind bars they were not able to write. In 1917 the Espionage Act punished government officials who leaked wrong doing of the government; whistle blowers. In 1918 The Sedition Act punished private person who made the United States government contempt by using disloyal, profane or abusive language. However in 1964 NYT v. Sullivan buried the sedition act ruling that the government cannot criticize an individual for criticizing the government, the first amendment was pose as uninhibited, robust and open debate even on government officials. 

    During WWI in 1914 it was a concern that the government always uses war as an excuse to take rights away from an individual. In 1917 Woodrow Wilson was an anti-war candidate. In 1918 Law settle field was used to throw people in jail that were speaking anything anti-war. In 1919: The quarter cases were about the antiwar protesters that were thrown in jail that were socialist or communist. "Incitement" is not speech protected, it's an action unprotected. Speech with the intent to cause violence or lawless action. In 1931 Court case Near v. Minnesota ruling that prior restraint is unconstitutional and established the Near Rule. The Near Rule had three exceptions but it was towards publications that silences the press and anti-war voices. If it incited violence, if it was obscene or if it threatened the national secretary in war time. In 1971 The pentagon papers added three more rules to the Near rule. If it presumed unconstitutional, 100% burden on the government to prove that it fit under that exception and the government must prove to be direct, immediate, or irreparable harm. 

    As we see throughout history there has been this ongoing fight with the government and journalist. The government tries to justify their reasoning for putting violating journalist first amendment. The government have also made new laws and regulation that restrained anti-war voices. However journalist have fought back through court cases. The government has an upper hand in the management of who they want to silence and also has the resources and connections it needs to cover it up. Journalist are fighting together to uphold the amendments for everyone and to ensure that the government does not violate our constitutional right to freedom of speech. 

History of the Associated Press

    

    The Associated Press (AP) has existed for 170 years and has worked aimlessly to bring accurate breaking news covering the world's biggest stories. AP is an American non-profit news agency stationed out in New York. The Associated Press was formed in May 1846 by Moses Yale Beach. Mr. Beach was an American inventor of originating print and newspaper entrepreneur, and a developer of popular journalism. The AP composed of five daily newspapers, The Sun, New York Herald, New York Courier and Enquirer, The Journal of Commerce, and the New York Evening Express. It began by making the sharing the events that underwent in the Mexican-American War available more quickly by having the newspapers working cohesively together rather than against each other. The advantage of multiple newspapers was to avoid duplicated effort by sending one news gatherer to act for the many. Financial gains were then shared by all the news that arrived by the telegraph wire and dividing the expenses evenly. 

    According to Moses Yale Beach biography, his good repute in 1846 influence President James K. Polk to commission him to negotiate peace terms with Mexico. However the war officially ended in February 2, 1848 by signing the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. That treaty added present-day Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. AP grew under the leadership of Kent Cooper who introduced the telegraph typewriter into newsrooms in 1914. The telegraph typewriter allowed for a quicker form of writing also it allowed for legible handwriting. In 1935, AP launched the wirephoto network which transmitted news photographs over leased private telephone lines on the day they were taken. The wirephoto gave the AP a major advantage over other news media outlets because it allowed photos to be sent over that same day instead of having to wait for days. The wirephoto made reporting more accurate since it allowed for news to be reported the same day the event occur. AP network was only between Chicago, San Francisco to New York but eventually AP news was being transmitted across the United States. 

    In 1945 the Supreme Court of the United States held Associated Press v. United States which stated that the AP had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890; U.S antitrust law that allows the rule of free competition of those involved. The AP had been violating the act by prohibiting the member newspapers from selling or providing news to nonmember organizations and was very strict and selective on those who can join the AP.  However this may have been a tactic to break down the entire AP organization, however that tactic did not work.