April 15, 2011

“Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter.” – Paxton Hood

Hood was an author in the 19^th century, but his quote still applies today.

But instead of books, read great journalism and, from them, learn the techniques to move an audience, to create a truly compelling story that will strike a chord in readers and stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Chapter nine takes on these stories, the “classics” of journalism. An article was published in the New York Times with a top 100 list of journalism in the 20^th century, one created, in part, by New York University professors.

These stories informed and defined generations, shedding light on important issues and warning readers of impending doom if the problems aren’t somehow corrected.

The authors create a story from an issue, but they don’t just rail against the injustice. Using facts and numbers, they prove that the issues are real and must to be dealt with.

The evidence doesn’t lie. The issues were substantial and shocking.

And the issues from years past still exist today.

Take Harold Littledale’s 1917 article called “Prisoners with midnight in their hearts,” where he exposes gross corruption and horrendous treatment of prisoners. Compare it to stories about Guantanamo Bay.

Or maybe Marvel Cooke’s 1950 story “The Bronx slave market,” where she goes undercover and investigates the cheap hiring of black women to clean homes. Compare it to the treatment of illegal immigrants, who work under the table doing menial jobs for less than minimum wage.

Still not convinced? Ernie Pyle’s 1944 article “The death of Captain Henry Waskow” discusses the death of a beloved army captain and his men’s reaction to it. Compare it to stories about fallen soldiers today, frequent thanks to the wars in the Middle East.

The main characters have changed, but corruption, mistreatment and inequality still exist in the world. The issues need to be exposed so change can occur.

Who better to do it than a journalist?

Other articles recommended by “America’s Best:”

• William Allen White: “Mary White”; 1921
• Lorena A. Hickock: “Iowa village waits all night for glimpse at fleeting train”; 1923
• Richard Wright: “Joe Louis uncovers dynamite”; 1938
• Dorothy Thompson: “Mr. Welles and mass delusion”; 1938
• Red Smith: “Miracle of Coogan’s bluff”; 1951
• Meyer Berger: “About New York”; 1959
• Gene Patterson: “A flower for the graves”; 1963

Five Examples

Note 1: It’s incredibly difficult to find many of the classic articles mention on the top 100 list online due to the fact that many are now books (which one typically pays for) and the date on the stories. Many older articles are either not uploaded onto the internet or they cost money to purchase. Check your local library and make sure you have a good block of time to take on many of the classic articles.

Note 2: As many of the top classic articles are, in fact, books, my analysis of the articles is on specific excerpts from the book. The full versions can be found online at the links.

The history of the standard oil company (excerpt, 1904)

By Ida Tarbell

Tarbell, one of the original muckrakers, exposed the Standard Oil Company monopoly, run by John D. Rockefeller. Her articles became a book in 1904, detailing the scam in all its glory.

Tarbell lists out the facts, spelling out a damning story about the corruption inherent in a monopoly. She chooses Standard Oil, not because it is the only company with this power, but because it is one of the most obvious.

“Were it alone in these methods, public scorn would long ago have mad short work of the Standard Oil Company,” she says. “But it is simply the most conspicuous type of what can be done by these practices.”

She believes that society itself permits this monopolistic power to exist and that the immoral practices of companies using this power are brushed off by society as acceptable.

“Very often people who admit the facts, who are willing to see that Mr. Rockefeller has employed force and fraud to secure his ends, justify him by declaring, ‘It’s business,’” she says. “That is, ‘it’s business’ has come to be a legitimate excuse for hard dealing, sly tricks, special privileges.”

She outlines what she sees as the solutions to the monopolistic and ethical problems, not only outlining the problem but contributing a solution to it as well, as a good classic journalist does.

Her inescapable facts and clear outrage at the issue, on that should concern everyone at the time, make the story a compelling, if dense read.

And the issue is one that still resonates today. Worried about OPEC’s control of gas prices and the rising price of gas? It’s the same sort of thing.

The Scopes trial: Homo Neanderthalensis (1925)

By H.L. Mencken

The Scopes trial took place in the summer of 1925, when a young schoolteacher in Tennessee taught evolution in the classroom, thus violating state law and bringing him to court.

Mencken attended the trials and watched as the trials took place, leading to Scopes eventual guilty plea and fine, which was later thrown out on a technicality.

He is more outspoken about his opinion than many of the other journalists mentioned. In fact, Mencken is utterly scathing in his assessment of the situation. He essentially rails against human stupidity and puts down the “immortal vermin” who are impeding progress, specifically evolution, because they cannot understand it.

“The so-called religious organizations which now lead the war against the teaching of evolution are nothing more, at bottom, than conspiracies of the inferior man against his betters,” he says.

“The thing that animates them is precisely the mob’s hatred of superiority. Whatever lies above their level of comprehension is of the devil.”

His detailed, incisive ridicule makes this story a must-read, for, although this specific article doesn’t contain any actual information about the trial, his rage against the “Tennessee buffoonery” is spectacular. His derision of the men he views as “ignorant” in so many ways that it’s honestly astounding.

Mencken’s differs due to fewer facts and more opinions, but as this is the introductory piece to the trial, the facts will come. Check out the whole series for the details in all their glory.

The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

Chapter five: Of the wings of Atalanta

By W.E.B Du Bois

Atlanta, at this time, is deep in the South and is only now beginning to become a great hub of urbanization rather than a beautiful place of traditional southern ideals of genteel nature.

Du Bois uses Atalanta, a maiden in a Greek myth who says that she will not marry anyone unless he can outrun her, as a metaphor for Atlanta. He worries that the influx of gold and wealth will change the city and the people living there, which will ruin the South as it exists.

“Atlanta must not lead the South to dream of material prosperity as the touchstone of all success; already the fatal might of this idea is beginning to spread; it is replacing all the finer type of Southerner with vulgar money-getters; it is burying the sweeter beauties of Southern life beneath pretence and ostentation,” he says.

He also worries about the racial divide, saying, “Today it makes little difference to Atlanta, to the South, what the Negro thinks or dreams or wills.”

The corruption of money and the detrimental effect on society’s members is a well-known issue. His worry about the race difference is also common. But Du Bois doesn’t just state his worries in a lyrical, descriptive passage, he also proposes a cure: education.

He sees education as the way to learn more about the world and create real men.

“To make men, we must have ideals, broad, pure, and inspiring ends of living,–not sordid money-getting, not apples of gold,” he says.

Issue? Check. Solution? Check.

Beautiful language that sucks in the reader and paints a spectacular image of Atlanta? Double check.

His personification of Atlanta brings the city to life in a way that simply describing its beauty would not be able to accomplish. “The iron baptism of war awakened her with its sullen waters, aroused and maddened her, and left her listening to the sea,” he says, showing his reverence and respect for the city and his belief that the city has awakened with the times and urbanization has changed her, making her want more.

The shame of the cities (excerpt, 1904)

By Lincoln Steffens

Steffens takes on the issue of corrupt government, an easy issue to tackle but one difficult to really do much about.

He gives a solution for bad government, although the likelihood of it ever being implemented is less than zero. Considering that the government today still has corruption issues, clearly nothing has happened yet.

“If our political leaders are to be always a lot of political merchants, they will supply any demand we may create,” he says. “All we have to do is establish a steady demand for good government.”

How might one go about this?

Ignore the party system and instead vote for the good of the city, state, Senate, not just political loyalty.

“It is idiotic, this devotion to a machine that is used to take our sovereignty from us,” he says.

It was true then and it’s true now. Consider the recent crisis with the budget, where only a last-second compromise kept the federal government from shutting down. And since that compromise was temporary, the deadlock will soon begin again.

But why is it so difficult to create a new budget plan?

Because politicians cater the people who hired them. With the recent influx of Tea Party Republicans, who cater to the far right, finding a compromise between the left and right is farther away than ever before.

Steffans’s detail and language give what could easily be a boring political story life and interest and he argues some fascinating points to prove his story and provide a solution.

He proves that his methods can work, going to cities and publishing articles showing the corruption of the government, proving to people that they should get involved to make a difference in government.

Has his lesson disappeared? Can the will to change government and work toward a better future return?

Only time will tell.

The Feminine Mystique (excerpt, 1963)

By Betty Friedan

Many of you have probably heard of this book. It’s a fascinating look at women at the time and the issues they faced: namely, they felt “empty,” unsatisfied with being housewives preoccupied only with children and husband.

They wanted more, but weren’t sure what they wanted. Or even how to express the yearning.

Friedan introduces the shift from World War II female independence to the shift in the 50s and 60s back to housewifedom. She uses facts to prove her point, showing that women were marrying younger, having more children and spending more time in the house than in the recent past.

But many women weren’t satisfied with this life, and that’s where Friedan comes in. She notices the problem and examines it, drawing in the reader with her lyrical language and extraordinary detail.

She describes the women in minute detail, outlining their lives in such a visual way that the reader can see the image in their minds. For example, she describes the wives as “kissing their husbands goodbye in front of the picture window, depositing their stationwagonsful of children at school and smiling as they ran the new electric waxer over the spotless kitchen floor.”

She outlines the problem as “a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered.”

She also looks to the future and believes that solving the sense of dissatisfaction and returning women to the workplace, giving them a life outside of the home, will become a regular way of life in years to come.

The issue of women’s freedom isn’t as great today, as the women’s movement has expanded, but some of the major issues are still around. For example, during Friedan’s time, “three out of ten women dyed their hair blonde.” Many didn’t eat food in order to look like the skinny models they saw in magazines.

Sound familiar? It should. Body image issues are more prevalent today than ever before as the women portrayed in magazines grow smaller and more waifish by the day.

The capacity that the internet has to offer a platform to every man is the reason that editor of the BBC College of Journalism Kevin Marsh looks to as being the common counter argument to impartial journalism.

His blog post for the Press Gazette, tows the BBC line and he recognises impartial reporting as a ‘yellow brick road’ through the ranting and raving of multitudes of internet users. But he also says that when anyone in the world can express whatever they feel, some people clearly think that telling the news in an impartial fashion is a ridiculous concept.

They see impartial journalism like a road atlas. Who needs one when everybody has their own personal sat-navs that takes them to all the specific places that they want to be taken to.

Impartial Journalism is out if date and dying. Or is it?

Why I find Kevin Marsh’s argument convincing is his determination that impartiality in journalism is a relatively new construct. We tend to think of impartial journalism as classic journalism- Calum and I have talked before about it being one of the BBC’s cornerstones.

Actually, Kevin Marsh argues that classic journalism has never been impartial.

You could argue that impartial journalism then, is simply a legal obligation that goes along with broadcasting. Or you could argue that when broadcasting brought in impartial reporting, it provided people with an important touchstone. And with the internet perhaps taking over what the newspapers started, albeit in a colossal way, this touchstone may well be more important than ever in online journalism.

So sat-navs or road maps…which route will you choose?