JOUR 301 Chapter 1: The Founding Press

• JOUR 301 - Chapter 1: The Founding Press

Early Days: Who Was There?

• Native Americans estimated around 8 million before Columbus, decreased to around 600,000 by 1775.
• Colonist population grew from about 2,000 to 2.4 million by 1776.
• English colonies were administered by the British government to generate revenue.
• English colonists included younger sons of nobility, speculators, entrepreneurs, merchants and those seeking religious freedom.
• Poor people or those accused of crimes became indentured servants; 300,000 came to America this way but were mostly replaced by enslaved people by 1776.
• There were 500,000 enslaved people legally held in all 13 colonies.
• Other colonists included French, Dutch, Spanish and Swedish people.

A Hunger for Information

• European political and business leaders exchanged handwritten newsletters, also known as intelligence, for many years.
• By mid 1500s, newsletters became a steady business in cities and written more like letters.
• Insider news was exclusively available to leaders and the wealthy.
• Delivery of news was unreliable.
• Newsletters focused on specific topics, usually trade or government.
• In the early 1600s in Amsterdam, the Dutch began printing "corantos" or "currents of news."
• This was an early example of terse, business-like writing style.
• The news printed was old, and published unevenly.
• Corantos were more like a book than a newspaper.
• In 1605, Johann Carolus began printing the first European newspaper in what is now Germany, called "Account of all distinguished and commemorable stories".
• The printing press and moveable type fueled an information explosion.
• Leaders tried to control the press.
• Henry VII (1485-1509) began printing state communications or broadsides which favored him and his government.
• Henry VIII (1491-1547) imposed prior restraint, which meant materials required government agent approval before publishing.
• Violators were prosecuted with seditious libel.
• Elizabeth I (1533-1603) created a secret "Court of the Star Chamber” and used it to prosecute printers who refused to comply and printed information that challenged her rule.
• In the 1600s, the English Crown thought public discussion of government would make it less efficient and effective and make revolt easier.
• The English Crown forbade publishing news except for foreign events, natural disasters, sensational crimes, and Royal Declarations.
• The Oxford then the London Gazette started in 1665 and was the first newspaper that looked like a newspaper.
• It began publication when King Charles I moved to Oxford during a plague.
• The London Gazette was partly old and partly new information.
• There was no obvious verification attempts.
• The London Gazette was published on behalf of the English Goverment, by Authoritiy.
• Controlling printers and publications became harder during the 1600s.
• Religious and political pamphlets and broadsides flooded the market.
• Increased literacy created markets for more publications.
• Writers in England began to call for an end to government censorship because it hindered the spread of truth, concentrated power in the hands of too few, prevented debate necessary for problem solving, and slowed the development and spread of knowledge.
• In 1695, the House of Commons refused to renew the licensing act.
• By 1704, nine newspapers were published in London, including one daily.

Themes to Remember

• Information is powerful and empowering.
• An expansion in access to information often threatens the powerful.
• It often opens the door to false information, fear-based content, attacks, libel, and stirs up the mob.
• The powerful then attempt to crack down with harsh penalties and attempts at control and regulation.
• In the colonies, the number of printers grew with the population.
• Colonists were considered English/British citizens and allowed some self-rule.
• The number of printers and products rapidly expanded after the licensing act expired.
• Printers printed government proclamations, legislative resolutions, advertisements, sermons, and religious writings.
• Printing was a complicated process, a new technology that was learned trade by multi-year apprenticeship, potential for wealth and influence.
• Printing was almost exclusively white men.
• The trade was not open to women, most Native Americans, or enslaved people/free people of color.

Stop and Consider

• Who is telling the story in the colonies?
• Whose story isn't told?
• Whose viewpoint is not heard?
• What harm could this cause?
• In Boston in 1690, Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestic began.
• The English translation is What's happening here and away!
• It included shocking stories, natural events like harvests, upcoming community events such as Native American Day of Thanksgiving, military movements and policy decisions- Massachusetts militia in Canada, criticism of those in charge and sex scandals of prominent people.
• Motivations of early newspaper printers included wishing to say something, seeking attention and making money.
• From the very beginning of newspapers, power worry about "fake news.”
• It's a journalistic tradition which is older than the U.S.A. on this continent.
• The Boston News-Letter was made 14 years after Publick Occurrences
• In 1702, it was handwritten by the postmaster.
• In 1704, it began printing a version and was the first newspaper in American colonies.
• It became controversial, and started competing with Boston Gazette when a new postmaster took over.
• Soon took opposing sides on many issues.
• It tried to find information that appealed to more readers.
• Competition increased circulation for both publications.
• Themes to listen for as you watch the videos include what is considered news, what motivates publishers and writers?, what did audiences respond to?, examples of journalists' relationship to power and authority? and how it's paid for?
• Philadelphia emerges as center of thought and information.
• American Weekly Mercury was founded in 1719 and was the first newspaper published outside Boston.
• Also the first newspaper to seek a regional circulation, not just city or colony-wide.
• It distributed in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Island, Virginia and others.
• It published an opinion to "exert their Liberty ..." on the eve of election an opinion article urging readers.
• This was considered an attack on the government by the governing council and the order was given to arrest the author, even though he didn't write it.
• Ben Franklin launches Pennsylvania Gazette in 1729, expanded to create a network of printers in colonies.
• His writing excited audiences for more.
• Franklin cemented his reputation, was well-known, respected, and influential.
• He set an example for other thinkers, writers and publishers in the colonies.
• A growing Press brought more challenges to top-down authority.
• Regional newspapers fostered a growing sense of connection and shared destiny between the colonies, which had been founded by different groups for varied goals.
• A small but growing number of newspapers in the colonies started chafing at the way the British governed and restrictions on press freedom.
• They considered themselves as equal citizens to those in Britain, but the British looked down on them.
• They argued that a free press was essential in a democratic republic.

Some Quotes

• "He is an enemy to his King and country who pleads for any restraint upon the Press ..."
• Essayist in New-York Weekly Journal in 1733 said that "The Press must be “a curb, a bridle, a terror, a shame and restraint to evil ministers (government officials).”

John Peter Zenger Trial

• A German immigrant founded the The New-York Weekly Journal to publish ideas of NY merchants who disagreed with the policies of the New York Governor, William Cosby.
• NY Governor William Cosby was corrupt and used his office to play favorites and to enrich himself, family and friends at the expense of local people and taxpayers.
• Cosby did not govern fairly, punished opponents and removed judges just because he didn't like their interpretation of the law when they ruled against him.
• Cosby publicly burned copies of the Journal and bypassed the grand jury to indict someone.
• Zenger did not write the things that angered Cosby but was still held him responsible.
• Zenger was arrested, with bail set at £600 which is $40,000 in today's money.
• Zenger spent 10 months in jail awaiting trial and came to be considered a martyr and was highly publicized.
• His wife Anna continued to publish while he was in jail.
• His allies hired a top lawyer from Philadelphia which was made it a test case for press liberty.
• Zenger was technically guilty, but the jury was persuaded that press freedom was more important.
• At the time of the trial, in English law, seditious libel was defined as the intentional publication, without lawful excuse or justification, of written blame of any public man or of the law, or any institution established by the law.

New Ideas on Information and Liberty

• For as it is truth alone which can excuse or justify any man for complaining of a bad administration, I as frankly agree that nothing ought to excuse a man who raises a false charge or accusation, even against a private person, and that no manner of allowance ought to be made to him who does so against a public magistrate; truth ought to govern the whole affair of libels. ..."
• "Power may justly be compared to a great river, while kept within its due bounds, is both beautiful and useful; but when it overflows its banks, it is then too impetuous to be stemmed, it bears down all before it and brings destruction and desolation wherever it comes. If then this is the nature of power, let us at least do our duty, and like wise men (who value freedom) use our utmost care to support liberty, the only bulwark against lawless power, which in all ages has sacrificed to its wild lust and boundless ambition the blood of the best men that ever lived."

John Peter Zenger Trial

• Andrew Hamilton, Zenger's lawyer, said "The question before the Court and you, Gentlemen of the jury, is not of small or private concern.
• It is not the cause of one poor printer, nor of New York alone, which you are now trying.
• No! It may in its consequence affect every free man that lives under a British government on the main of America.
• It is the best cause, it is the cause of liberty."
• The John Peter Zenger Trial was a key turning point in thinking about tyranny and freedom of the press in the colonies.
• It demonstrated the power of the emerging newspaper culture in the colonies to influence and shape public opinion.
• It set an important legal precedent about libel in the public's minds and public discourse, but took more than 50 years for it to be made part of the law