(9)
Period 6
Today, the press and media cause rampant
swaying of the vote through their own
opinions and reports.
People are often misled with half-truths and believable rumors
that can aid or
ruin an election. Journalists and the
newspapers often print things too
hastily, without
first investigating the truth or at least both sides of a story. Candidates
abuse the media,
using money as a pass to publicly slander and deface the character of
their opposition,
his ideals, and even the innocent people related to him. These concepts
did not start
recently, or even in our century. The
press and media's views affected the
early
presidencies too. Let's start with the
first president elected by vote, John Adams.
John Adams took the office of president in the
year 1797.
He was a close admirer
of Washington and
was sometimes said to be Washington's shadow
(Presidency of John
Adams, Ralph
Adams Brown 1975). He and the Federalists
believed that nothing the
Anti-federalists
and their supporting press could say would be enough to shake their
control. Yet it was Adams who, in spite of his
undoubted intelligence, made a mistake of
such proportions
that it brought about his own downfall and the party's (Press and the
Presidency, John
Tebbel 1985). This mistake would be the
Sedition Act, which tested
the first
amendment and the freedoms of the press.
This obviously did not please the
press and its
opinions were generally shifted to that of the Anti-Federalist. This was a
deadly blow to
John Adams' presidency and the Federalist party. He himself was no
stranger to the
press, he worked together with the Sons of Liberty and "cooked up
paragraphs"
while "working the political engine" in the Boston Gazette (Brown
1975).
Adams experience
with the press had convinced him that it was a primary source of
political
persuasion, and the thought was intriguing to him. He is quoted as saying in
response to
mudslinging between the two parties "There is nothing that the people
dislike
that they do not
attack" (Tebbel 1985). When the
press was being used in his favor, or
against the crown
of England, he seemed to be proud of the individuality and freedoms of
the American
press. However, when it was used against
him for negative purposes, he
wanted it
stopped.
Adams had obstacles from the beginning of his
presidency. The new president
had to establish
his own identity among these men of his own party, and at the same time
he was compelled
to defend himself as best he could against the virulent Anti-Federalist
press, which had
simply resumed its campaign against him where it left off with
Washington (Brown
1975). After debates on the topic, Adams
and the Federalists were
for censorship as
the Sedition Act called for. William B
Giles of Virginia asserted that
opinion whether founded in truth or error is a
property, which every individual
possesses, and which in this country he is at
liberty to address to the public
through the medium of the press... It should
not be forgotten that in the United
States the rights of every man and of every
society are popular--the rights of
opinion, or of thinking
and speaking and publishing are sacred.
(Tebbel 1985)
The Federalists continually lost the following
of the people through the press and
its opinions of
them. Despite the rejection by the
general populous, they continued on
and passed
treason bills, forbidding true freedom of the press and public opinion. Adams
and the
Federalists were sweeped out of office after one term, leaving with a bad image
due to the
persistent press.
Thomas Jefferson was then elected into office
by popular vote. He had distinctly
opposing views to
that of the now ousted Federalist party, but still he too had some
obstacles due to
the press and media. He truly believed
in the rights of the people, and he
held the freedom
of the press in high regard. He believed
that in order to make
democracy
function as it should, there must be an absolutely free press (Tebbel 1985).
He did
occasionally speak out against the press, but this was usually when the
press did
not match the
enthusiasm or truly match his
ideals. His problems with the press had
its
origins for
similar reasons that had made Washington and Adams enemies of the press--
that is, the
newspapers remained primarily political organs. No matter how rapidly they
were advancing in
their news coverage, they were still in the hands of politicians who
used printers as
tools for their own adgendas. He too,
tried to use the press to his
advantage, but
when they smote him, he turned the other cheek publicly and tried to turn
it around
proclaiming to be the champion for a free press. His views to the press slowly
began to change,
however he always was for a free press.
He believed that it must be
free, but that
its purpose in a democratic society was to inform, to circulate information
among all classes
of people, not simply the political aristocracy to which he himself
belonged. The press informed the people, and they, in
possession of real facts and the
truth, would make
democracy work. (Tebbel 1985) At the time almost everyone did
agree on that
fact, except for the extremist Britain loyalists. Jefferson's views, after
increasing attack
and slander became a bit more loose. He
still thought the presses
should be free,
but also free of lies and libel. Thus
Jefferson came to the presidency with
a clear record of
absolute support for press freedom, now with the single limitation of the
libel laws. The Federalist's press and their scurrilous
attacks on him were at their savage
height, and the
control slipped away. This caused a
paradoxical situation for Jefferson
that could not
lead to a positive outcome. He wanted to
restore the credibility of the
press--that is,
stop the oppositions lying attacks on him--by a few judicious, selected libel
actions brought
in the states where they are most likely to succeed, which if successful
would put the
fear of the law into other papers so that they may unfreely restrain
themselves
(Tebbel 1985). He did not bring about
the libel suits (a wise move) that
would have made
him seem like a hypocrite and a backstabber to the press which he
frequently
claimed to be the champion of, so ultimately the press was allowed to
continue the
attacks against him which hurt his character.
The Evening Post newspaper
came about and it
too was not exactly full of pro-Jefferson sentiment. But in another
smart move by
Jefferson he turned the other cheek and continued to be proud of the
freedom used to
slander him. Jefferson was quoted as
saying this about the press though
I determine never to put a sentence into any
newspaper. I will religiously adhere
to this resolution through the rest of my life
and have great reason to be contented
with it.
Were I to undertake to answer the calumnies of the newspapers, it would
be more than all my own time, and that of
twenty aids could effect. For while I
should be answering one, twenty new ones would
be invented. I have thought it
better just to trust to the simple justice of
my countrymen. (Tebbel 1985)
His actions and reactions to the horrendously
negative press certainly aided his
election to a
second term. If Adams would have been as
much as an optimistic pacifist
perhaps he would
have been allowed to serve a second term.
From this point to decades
in the future,
the press was constantly a factor in the presidency. There always were
presses against
the views of the president and the freedoms of the press ,too, were
stretched,
tested, and analyzed. They were
constantly under scrutiny from the presidency
through the
following tumultuous decade. In the
presidency of Andrew Jackson the press
began to change
to even more of a manipulatory tool, than just expressive of opposing
ideals.
Newspapers in Jackson's time still served the
purposes of political candidates and
parties and were
sometimes subsidized by them. Nearly
every candidate had his own
newspaper, with
its loyal editor, whether he had any organization behind him or not.
Until Jackson,
political party organization had been so weak that newspapers were a
prime element in
the ability of a candidate to function.
When he solicited funds, the
money was needed
largely to buy the support of major newspaper editors which was for
sale (Cole
1993). Jackson's ideas of government
were consistent with his character. He
agreed that there
should be three equal parts of a government, as the Constitution had
decreed, but he
insisted that he was the first among equals, as the popular voice
responsible for
policy. The press, of course, could
change the "popular voice" very easily
with lies,
half-truths, and calumny.
In Jackson's campaign in 1828 began to take
shape, the general heard a clarion
call to
governmental reform, and he perceived that the press was a valuable tool to
bring
this about (Cole
1993). For the first time, a
presidential campaign was organized from
the grassroots
upward, not only to elect Jackson but, so it was said, to reaffirm the
principles of
republicanism of the Jeffersonian variety--that is, debt reduction, minimal
government, and
states' rights. In the election of 1828
these broad issues were addressed
only in policy,
internal improvements were never dealt with directly by either the
candidates or the
newspapers. Instead, the press lost
whatever ground it had gained since
older times and
engaged in the old style of invective and reckless charges, libel, and
harmful attacks
(Tebbel 1985). It is believed that
Jacksonians had raised a fund of
$50,000 to
establish newspapers guaranteed to support Jackson (Cole 1993) This is not
very doubtful in
my mind, since corruption of newspapers was commonplace and their
favor was quite
easily attainable.
Jackson and his backers were all the while busy
organizing a powerful coalition,
drawing into it
wise politicians, businessmen, as well as some newspapers and their
editors. So through reaction to a corrupted press the
Democratic party was created
(Tebbel
1985)! Obviously that seriously effected
American politics to this date. At the
time this was
called the Nashville Central Committee, which then began giving regular
handouts to the
press, letters written to politicians everywhere in the country, and
visitations to
local and other state committees, and most importantly the central
committee in
Washington. This also lead to a steady
distribution of propaganda and
campaigning
materials.
Jackson also formed a trio known as the "Kitchen
Cabinet" (Cole 1993). It
consisted of
Kendall, Blair, and Jackson. Kendall
noted down the president's ideas, often
as the president
lay back on a couch and smoked his pipe, and later he and Blair would
write, or
rewrite, what was said into stories of both the Jackson and Van Buren
administrations. Thus Jackson
emerged as the first presidential manipulator of the press,
in a practical,
systematic way that far surpassed any earlier attempts at such (Tebbel
1985). So the "Globe" became the president's
personal and frequent conveyer of
propaganda and
the beliefs he wanted the people to have.
Ironically, since everyone
knew that the
Globe was the president's personal organ, its circulation naturally increased
because in its
pages could be seen what the president was thinking (actually, what he
wanted you to
think) and assiduous readers might even anticipate what he might propose
next. However, the Globe still prospered, and
within a year had four thousand
subscribers plus
congressional and departmental printing contracts worth about $50,000
annually (Cole
1993). Many of these were taken away
from the Telegraph, which was
the oppositions
leading paper! Due to this the Telegraph
had to stop due to funding
problems and the
Globe was left alone to lead people to Jackson's cause.
As the campaign for his second term began, the
persuasive and overwhelming
political
character of the Globe was evident as even the most important news had to take
a second place to
the political maneuvers the Democrats were making. A cholera
epidemic in
Washington was noticed only in the official reports of the Board of Health,
but there was
room for columns of quotations from Democratic papers on the veto of the
bank bill (Tebbel
1985). Unlike Jefferson and Madison had
been, Jackson was not
known to be
ultimately a supporter of total press freedom.
However, this didn't stop him
from getting
elected to a second term, which can be said is largely due to the Globe and
its persuasions.
Jackson had shown what could be done with a
manipulated press to hit people on
the head with the
hammer blows of an aggressive presidency.
It would take the "Little
Magician"
Martin Van Buren, to demonstrate how the press could be used to persuade
without the
hammer blow. However, violent passions
were rising in the country over the
slavery issue,
and a new breed of editors was about to come into its own--editors who
could declare
themselves independent of any political party or candidate and not only
survive but
become rich and successful (Wilson
1984). He also was known as the
"Red
Fox,"
(Wilson 1984) as the press sometimes called him, because journalists already
were
well aware of Van
Buren's special talents as a master manipulator. More than any
president before
him, Van Buren possessed an innate ability to grasp the interrelationship
of the press and
the public mind. Yet, what he wrote about both was hardly full of
brilliant
insight. He said, "In this matter
of personal popularity, the working of the public
mind is often
inscrutable. In one respect only does it
appear to be subject to rule, namely
in the
application of a closer scrutiny by the people to the motives of public men to
their
actions." In the same volume, speaking of the
opposition papers, he gave us the common
political
opinion: "Their press had been for
a long time and was at that very moment
teeming with the
most outrageous calumnies against me on the same general subject."
(Tebbel
1985) The press even developed a term to
describe the way they felt about him
"vanburenish"
which meant straddling or avoiding certain issues, but still maintaining the
great guy
facade.
The "little magician" had some
Jacksonian political attributes too. He
may have
complained from
time to time about the Albany Argus, but this paper was an important
factor in his
rise to power. He contributed to it
often, and eventually came to own it as
his own, much
like Jackson's Globe. However, when Van
Buren began his campaign for
the presidency, he
found himself in the unaccustomed position of being on the receiving
end of abuse from
the press. As a candidate, he also came
under blows delivered by
Webb's corrosive
pen. "Every paper almost we open
speaks contemptuously of Van
Buren's prospects
for the presidency." (Wilson
1984) The New York American even
declared:
"Mr. Van Buren consorts most naturally with the degraded and vile--for
among
them he is a
superior... The good we desire we may not be able to attain; but the evil we
dread, the great
and menacing evil, the blighting disgrace of placing Martin Van Buren,
illiterate,
sycophant, and politically corrupt, at the head of this great republic... we
can
avert it and such
a consummation is surely worth some trouble." (Tebbel 1985) With the
press he wanted
on his side backfiring on him like this, it is no wonder why he was not
elected to a
second term as president of the United States.
As you see, the press was, and is, a very
fickle group. You are either with them,
or against them. It makes men, breaks men, and aids one at the
expense of another. Yet,
I am glad we have
such liberties and such an intriguing press that can be played like a big
game where
ultimately someone loses big.
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