Modern Journalist: Anne O'Hare McCormick

From The New York Times

In 1921, the world of journalism was still a "man's world." That didn't stop from Anne O'Hare McCormick (pictured right) from asking The New York Times managing editor for a chance.

Born in May 1882, in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, Anne was born to the O'Hare's, both American with Irish ancestry. Her father was a life insurance salesman, whereas her mother was a poet and journalist. It wasn't long before the family moved back to the United States.

The O'Hare's spent most of their time in Ohio. McCormick had two younger sisters by the time her father abandoned the family, which prompted her mother to take them to Cleveland, Ohio. In Cleveland, McCormick worked alongside her mother at what would later be known as the Catholic Universe Bulletin. 

McCormick worked as associate editor for the paper while her mother wrote as a columnist and women's section editor. However, when Anne married Francis J. McCormick in 1910, she decided to quit the Bulletin and begin freelancing. 

Francis had to regularly travel to and from Europe since he was an engineer, constantly importing large equipment. Most of McCormick's writings went into popular magazines, both for Catholic and non-religious magazines.

She worked as a freelancer to improve her skills. In 1921,  she was confident enough in her writing that she wrote to The New York Times managing editor. When he accepted, Anne began sending dispatches.

It wasn't long before McCormick became a regular correspondent for The Times, initially focusing on writing about European life for American readers. She quickly gained respect from both colleagues and readers alike.

McCormick was able gain respect as quickly as she did because she made it a point to gain contacts in every new city she arrived in. She made a point to make contacts in even the government buildings.

Her contacts in Italy gave her the information that McCormick  needed to accurately argue Benito Mussolini would successfully rise to power in Italy.

And he did so in 1922.

McCormick's ambitions, accurate reporting, and well-earned trust among colleagues, readers and sources didn't go unrewarded. Her name was on the list of people that interviewed notable figures in history.

Some of the most recognizable figures are from the Second World War:

• Adolph Hitler, Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers’(Nazi) Party
• Benito Mussolini, Italian prime minister (1922–25), "Il Duce" and dictator (1925-1945)
• Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd U.S President (1933-1945)
• Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952), Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1941–1953).
• Sir Winston Churchill, Conservative Prime Minister (1940-1945 and 1951-1955)

Other notable include Neville Chamberlain, Léon Blum, Gustav Stresemann, Eamon de Valera, Edvard Beneš, and Kurt von Schuschnigg.

It was of note that any male journalist be able to interview the aforementioned people but McCormick was no man. Her ability to adequately interview major political figures and be able to keep her composure only added to her notoriety.

In some of her interviews, McCormick's calm composure allowed her to conflict with an interviewee but not spark as much extreme response or risk of bodily harm. She was able to dance with dangerous questions while avoiding severe and serious repercussions.

McCormick's reputation allowed her to be asked to join the NYT's editorial staff. She joined in 1936.

The following year, she won the 1937 Correspondent Prize for her dispatches and feature articles from Europe from the previous year. She was the first woman to receive a Pulitzer at the Times. This high honor would go on to be her only Pulitzer Prize and a history marker for women at the Times.

Despite being a part of the editorial staff and awarded a Pulitzer, McCormick didn't slow down. She continued reporting and being involved in what was becoming an increasingly tense world. She continued through what is now regarded as World War II.

The McCormicks, from cleveland.com

It wasn't until the Second World War was nearing what is now known as its end, McCormick returned to her NYT roots by going to the Eastern front, acting as a war correspondent for the Times in 1944.

She would remain an active member of the NYT for years to come. 

For a couple of those active years, McCormick also acted as the U.S delegate at the UNESCO conferences in 1946 and 1948. UNESCO holds these conferences to determine policies and where the organization should dedicate its work, effectively being a massive exchange of information on a global scale.

Anne O'Hare McCormick worked until her death in New York City on May 29, 1954. The NYT honored her by writing a lengthy obituary in tribute to her extraordinary life.

You can read some of her stories below from the New York Times archives (requires subscription):

Berlin, July 9, 1933: Hitler Seeks Jobs for All Germans

Feb. 24, 1947: The President in the Role of Peacemaker

Jan. 12, 1942: Europe; Scope for the Wings of the Imagination

React: "Gotcha" Journalism

"Gotcha" journalism is defined as a method used by interviewers to discredit interviewees. It rose in use
during the 1980s and 90s. It consists of ambushing target interviewees (especially right after speeches), hidden cameras, and catching people off guard, when someone was unaware and/or unprepared.

Journalists in the 80s started to use this form of journalism to press politicians. Some were able to get a rise out of politicians and some were able to get new answers. Significant moments in the 80s and 90s of "gotcha" journalism are...

•     1987: Paul Taylor exposes Gary Hart's adultery
•     1992: the H.W Bush affair
•     1992: Bill Clinton's affair with Gennifer Flowers
•     1999: George W. Bush drug scandal

Journalism shifted within the two aforementioned decades in order to expose falsehoods. Oftentimes, cornering interviewees was the ideal way of getting unintended or new answers.

Other times, journalists were divided from their colleges in terms of ethics. Some journalists enabled the use of hidden cameras in order to get their own information, be it to start off their story (like scandals) or to add to an existing story.

This "classic" variation of gotcha journalism has mostly gone away and evolved (or mutated) overtime.

Nowadays, hidden cameras are still used, but they're often better hidden or made into an inconspicuous item for both journalism and less appropriate reasons. Many women, outside of the realm of journalism, are finding these hidden cameras in fire alarms, shower heads, and alarm clocks in a personal sweep of rooms or properties they're staying at. 

Journalists also use CCTV and body camera footage. CCTV allows for footage of a public space (like a street) as surveillance. Body camera footage often works as a first-person filming while someone, often being law enforcement, is in action. While others use CCTV and body cam footage to keep someone accountable, journalists can use it as a manner to add to their story, be it for details or as proof for conflict or truth.

Other journalist and investigators will go undercover if footage can't be acquired by previously mentioned means. Some journalists that go undercover risk a lawsuit depending on how they went undercover, like if it's a story about a business but no one in the business were aware of the journalist's presence or true intention.

Recently, many stories that journalists make are from leaked documents and information. The biggest scandal was the leak about the Ukraine-Russia War.

Whistleblowers are a favorite for gotcha journalists, especially if they're willing to fully step up into the spotlight. Whistleblowers are people within an organization that are willing to speak out about a certain issue or failing of the organization and have rights and protections under certain United States departments.

The last form of gotcha journalism is often described as the slimiest or the least favorable is the paparazzi. The paparazzi are known for tracking down and taking surprise pictures of major figures and celebrities. both with and without their knowledge, depending on the distance.

Some, like those depicted on the left, come out in masses to capture images of their target celebrity or figure.

Good Night, and Good Luck

In 1935, there was a rather unafraid journalist under CBS called Edward "Ed" Murrow. Soon after, in the 1940s and 50s, there was a wave of fear and persecution called "McCarthyism."

The movie Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) gained its title from Ed Murrow's broadcast segment's closing phrase. Murrow would show his news and allowed for extended conversation. Almost always, Murrow closed his segment with "Good night, and good luck."

Early on in the movie, it's obvious that there's a conflict between the press and the McCarthy-era government. Murrow, as a member of the press, constantly challenges the government while the government constantly tries to silence him.

Funny enough, in one of the segments where Murrow was speaking at an event, he said, "Our history will be what we make of it."

At the time, Joseph McCarthy and his council had over 200 people accused of being Communists or Communist sympathizers. This wave of panic, or McCarthyism, is also known as one of the major Red Scares. 

One of the people accused of Communism was from a Michigan Air Base. Air Force Lieutenant Milo Radulovich was accused and indicted as a Communist without a hearing or trial. His biggest crime, as Murrow soon reported, was that he was of Serbian descent through his father.

No one knew his actual crimes. His charges were in a missing confidential folder that was who-knew-where. Even the military were trying to cover up the story.

Regardless of military intimidation or claims of "security risk," Murrow consistently reported on the Radulovich story. Other members of the press avoided the story of the lieutenant or McCarthyism to avoid being accused themselves or visited by military men.

The government was in almost complete control of the media.

It's not that different today, just in a new form of persecution and prosecution. 

Murrow's own boss at CBS warned Murrow to back off the McCarthy stories. He believed that Joseph McCarthy's witch hunt of alleged communists would implode on himself. McCarthy stories were chaos and risky to broadcast but Murrow insisted. 

Edward R. Murrow. Image from Britannica. 

Murrow still reported.

After early reports, the reportage on McCarthyism and the trials conducted became a matter of ethics and legality. Ethically, the story was well-done. Legally, lawyers warned and suggested killing the stories.

One of the Murrow broadcasts CBS and their lawyers caught and tried to kill was when Murrow began to challenge McCarthy directly... by using his own words against him. It evolved into an accusatory game of I-beat-you-to-it.

McCarthy soon started attacking Murrow. He claimed that Murrow was connected to the communist party.

A quote that stuck out to me from Murrow regarding McCarthy's accusations was "An accusation is not proof."

Both men were under a constant barrage of accusations and opinions. Approvals from other media outlets changed the mood of a whole room. Bad news for one party elated the other, as displayed as when Lt. Radulovich was reinstated to his position in the Air Force.

Life went on for most of those depicted. 

Journalists in the film were stunned for a moment between Murrow's reenacted broadcasts. Notable journalist Don Hollanback's death was announced shortly after the lieutenant's reinstatement. He'd passed from suicide by gas released from his stove. 

Almost as if to match that loss, the U.S Senate grew tired of McCarthy almost as much as Murrow "enjoyed" broadcasting his interactions against the junior senator. The Senate moved to investigate McCarthy (which didn't do much as McCarthy was forced to quiet himself, almost vanishing for the remainder of his time as senator). 

In a twisted way, the recreation of the Murrow-McCarthy feud and McCarthy's incitement of a Red Scare was a haunting reflection of today's journalist-politician interaction and politician's exaggerations of current issues.

Everyone half-wins. 

Then, McCarthy lost his significant position as bold anti-communist senator (but still held some form of power by giving paranoia to the American people), major figures in the United States at the time were confronted, and Murrow got the last word at an awards ceremony.

Today, a man which holds no political power still has a massive following with xenophobic or extreme views), major figures in both politics and journalism are constantly under the careful eye of the public (many being new young voters) or in conflict, and journalists still receive recognition, positive or not.

Much like Murrow was describing, it's a tricky world to navigate. It's up to the people to keep figures, like those in the government, in check. 

So, as Murrow says,

"Good night... and good luck."

EOTO: Propaganda and War, Role of the press

The use of propaganda in modern societies is no new strategy. 

In 1622, the Catholic Church started propagating foreign missions for the spreading of the Bible's teachings as interpreted by men of the clergy at that point. Since then, the world has taken the methods and developed them for non-religious purposes.

20th Century Propaganda

While at the time of the birth of propaganda, the information being spread was perceived as truth, the modern meaning has evolved to mean "the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor, often biased or misleading, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause, institution or point of view." 

Modern journalism is just one vessel of spreading propaganda. 

The Catholic Church's global position of importance of general life has decreased significantly overall. Meanwhile, the daily use and importance of journalism has risen. 

During the 20th Century, multiple wars meant multiple propaganda waves. The United States of America, once renowned as the world's peacekeepers, was involved with the most wars.

Propaganda posters, like the one depicted on the left, is a lighter example. "Rosie the Riveter," also considered a cultural icon, united those on the battlefield and women in munition factories. 

The 21st Century and War

Much of who are called Generation Z grew up in times of war or otherwise overseas conflict. A notable many were born during the wars in the Middle East, in which the U.S had military forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.

"Gen Z" has also witnessed conflicts evolve into new wars. 

The two more-reported wars and conflicts were the 2021 Israel-Palestine crisis and the Ukrainian Crisis. The latter, also the more reported war, has been called the Russian Invasion of Ukraine or the Ukraine-Russia Conflict/War.

Most of the young world communicated through social media, primarily TikTok, to witness the Ukraine-Russia conflict evolve in both political accounts and personal accounts from both soldiers and victims of the war. You can view dated updates of the Ukraine-Russia War on CNN's Live Updates. 

Modern forms of propaganda coming from active conflict or active war zones have evolved from posters like "Rosie the Riveter" to propagating written information and videos from both sides of the conflict, occasionally even drawing a third party to release a form of propaganda.

Many current non-white or non-European conflicts' propaganda are often left in their native language if visual art forms are released. For instance, the Israel-Palestine poster (right) was left in Arabic script.

Other conflicts in white or European regions are often translated and generally more publicized, both in media coverage and available translations (ie social media, subtitles, etc).

The Role of the Press

The press has a fundamental role in publishing accurate information as truthfully as possible. 

Workers of the press, often professional journalists and correspondents, have an ethical obligation to uphold their role. However, due to division in national and international media, the various forms of publication have evolved to "accuracy" according to particular outlets' political favor.

The current reliability of the press is up to the individual person as they read. The role of the press is simply to ethically (and morally) report on the beat they were assigned, like war correspondence, or the story they took up. This should mean all sides are given a chance to comment or speak.

The role of the press is to inform with accurate information.

The role of the reader is to consume and make their own conclusions

React: Girl Reporter

In the 1880s through the 1890s, there was a group of female reporters called "Girl Reporters." They were known for undercover work in seedy areas and otherwise dangerous situations, even more dangerous as these women went into situations unaccompanied as women.

"Girl Reporters" was a term that originated in an article titled "Infanticide." The article's author remains unknown spare for their sentiment regarding a still-real battle over abortion. It was an abortion piece published in 1888 in The Chicago Times.

Girl Reporters were able to prove men wrong by bringing a more objective form of journalism to the table. These women were also able to use their sympathy, which men deemed their flaw, as a tactic rhetoric. They were able to delve deeper into stories, sometimes making them seem more fictional than reality.

New Yorker: image of Nellie Bly

Nellie Bly, born as Elizabeth Jane Cochran, was among the earliest of Girl Reporters. She began her journalism career at age 16 in 1885. Her pen name, Nellie Bly, was given to her in her short time at the Pittsburgh Gazette, but she carried it through her time at The New York World and later, The New York Journal until her death.

Eva McDonald also started her journalism career young. She began at the St Paul Daily Globe at only 12 years old. She took up the moniker Eva Gay, specializing in reporting women’s labor conditions

Victoria Earle Matthews, a Georgia native, worked to uncover and expose abuse of young Black women. She too had experienced abuses due to being born into slavery. After emancipation, she and her family moved to New York, where Matthews later became a journalist. In her career, she worked at three New York papers and eventually opened settlement home for women.

Gertrude Gordon was among the first women to have a byline in Pittsburgh. She used her byline in the Pittsburgh Press to highlight women’s movements. One of her earliest reports was on the Marianna Mine Disaster that killed 125 miners on November 30, 1908. Gordon wrote the piece from the view of one of the miner's wives. She garnered readers' sympathies and compassion, earning her the motherhood of Sob-Sister reporting. She also pulled plenty of risks and "stunts" to get a fascinating story, like Nellie Bly, also making her known as a Stunt-Girl. 

Lastly, Elizabeth Garver Jordan had a gift to blur the line between fiction and non-fiction in her writing. It makes sense as throughout her journalistic career, she was an avid author. She was the most notable journalist to use sympathy as rhetoric. Her gift for dramatic human interest went as far as interesting then-First Lady Caroline Scott Harrison, who gave time to be interviewed by Jordan, which was rare for Mrs. Harrison.

Girl Reporters were revolutionary in early movements, like the American suffrage movement, and revolutionizing what was perceived as normal in the bullpen. It wasn't often to see women's bylines outside of the Women's Pages until radical women who pushed the line earned their spot and didn't day "no" for an answer. 

Women like those mentioned above provided more objective forms of journalism and used new tactics to get their stories. It's likely that some papers may have had an increased audience grabbing papers due to new stories an angles or women being interested in seeing which woman broke out of the Women's Pages, then-considered unconventional.

EOTO on Nellie Bly

 When one searches for best known journalists, women don't often pop up in first searches. 

A journalist that transformed how investigative journalism was done should be one of the top journalists to remember. Unfortunately, this woman, who was a force to be reckoned with, is buried under the otherwise-enabled male journalists.

Nellie Bly (right), born Elizabeth Jane Cochran (later changed to Cochrane) in May 1864, was 16 when she took up the pen. She'd read an article in a Pittsburgh newspaper that lowered the value of women and wrote a furious letter to the editor, who ended up giving her her first job as a journalist at the paper. 

A Pennsylvania state marker appropriately called Bly "a crusading journalist on Pittsburgh and New York newspapers." 

Bly is best known for her flight around the world and her act of going undercover at Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum in New York. While these acts cemented her legacy as a powerful journalist and admirable woman, Bly wrote on more than insane asylums.

Bly started her journalistic career at the Pittsburgh Dispatch in 1885 at the age of 16 after her passionate letter to the editor at the time. Bly, along with what few other women in journalism there were, was restricted to "women's pages," covering society, fashion and topics of typically womanly interest.

The young journalist quickly found herself bored at writing women's pieces. She moved to New York City seeking the adventure of a better story and the nitty-gritty of exposing injustices.

When the New York World, still headed by then-editor Joseph Pulitzer at the time of her employment in 1887, took on Bly, they expected she would stay within the societal confines that a woman should always be protected and kept safe within the office. Bly quickly stunned Pulitzer by pitching adventurous and otherwise dangerous stories.

Her first major pitch was in 1889 when she wanted to prove Jules Verne's book Around the World in 80 Days wrong. When Pulitzer allowed it, Bly went around the world in 72 days, six hours, eleven minutes, and fourteen seconds.

Bly quickly became known to walk and volunteer for dangerous stories. 

Her most popular and best preserved stories was Pulitzer's idea. He wanted her to investigate the Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum (left) in the East River.

At the time, Blackwell's Island (now Roosevelt Island) was a publicly funded island for isolation. There was a jail and hospital as well as the insane asylum. It was ideal to protect the public from the inhabitants, both from crime and from chronic disease. 

But what Bly found was far from humane. 

In order to gain access to the insane asylum, Bly had to "act insane."

In the 1860s, asylum admission was broad compared to today's standard. What they considered "insanity" or "madness" was easy to be diagnosed with. Mental health awareness was nonexistent and encompassed mostly unfavorable characteristics. Drunkenness, epilepsy and "idiocy" were considered forms of madness. Mania, melancholy, hysteria, behavioral disabilities and chronic, deteriorating diseases like dementia were signs of insanity.

Bly impersonated someone with amnesia. She wouldn't forget those who were also committed with her. Some were healthy. Others who were healthy weren't native English speakers.

In a series of six exposés, Nellie Bly exposed neglect and abuses the medical staff of the asylum did against the committed persons. The range of abuse went from filthy rooms, cold showers and spoiled food to unmentionable horrors.

Bly later published a personal retelling of her time in the asylum titled Ten Days in a Madhouse. Between the exposés and the book, Bly rose to fame and jumpstarted a more consistent movement for hospital and asylum reform.

Bly was among the first women in the investigative journalism world, then a male-dominate world, to use her journalism to expose injustice and gain justice for victims of the institution. She was one of a handful of women that sparked an era of women stepping into dangers.

The Media Made a Martyr

In the movie "They Won't Forget," the story follows the press and police investigation of the murder of a young girl, Mary Clay, in a Southern town on Confederate Memorial Day. The story is actually based on the true story of even-younger girl, Mary Phagan. In the movie, the justice system and the press both seek their own gain rather than justice for the young late Mary Clay.

After the discovery of Mary Clay's body in the elevator shaft by the school janitor, the janitor is arrested on suspicion of murder. Although, due to it being a heavily-Confederate-proud Southern town, I suspect the quick arrest of the janitor was also because he was a black man.

The movie, unfortunately, breezed over his arrest.

As the story develops, a viewer can see that there's a high competition for a conviction rather than the correct conviction in both the local newsroom, the police station, and the district attorney's office. The reporter feed on and published gossip while the police and DA executed some form of an investigation.

I personally thought there wasn't much of an investigation. The officers relied on the gossip that the reporter relayed to them before publication.

Eventually, Clay's professor, Robert Hale, was arrested for the murder on hearsay and gossip the reporter got from Emogen Mayfield, a classmate of Clay's that claimed to have been a friend. The cops had gotten the information that Clay had liked Hale from the reporter, who'd gotten it from Mayfield. 

When the police went to arrest Hale, he was receiving a freshly-cleaned coat from a boy. When asked about why the coat had to be cleaned, the boy said it was because of a red stain that he suspected was either blood or juice. 

Quickly after his arrest, Hale's wife is bombarded by reporters invading her home and overwhelming her with information that her husband had been officially arrested and charged. They even use her as someone only able to give a "money shot" to the point that she's photographed while she's fainting.

After Mrs. Hale faints, the reporters illegally and unethically search the home for long-shot items of evidence. One reporter even steals a photo or a paper slip while a female reporter tries to coax information out of the wife on the basis that it was just a woman-to-woman conversation.

The media across the nation gets word of the events occurring in the town. Outlets keep stoking the fire and riling up divide and pushing for an angle that only is prejudicial of Mr. Hale. The stories are spun out of context so far that the conflict is nicknamed a pseudo-Civil War between the Southerners and the Northerners. 

It grows worse after a New York detective comes down to figure out the truth behind the dramatic reports. The locals and legal system are skeptical of the new New Yorker in town and are cold to him and the families of the Hales as they arrive and the trial commences.

The trial is filled with speculation and reporters creating daily headlines out of the court day. The janitor is used as a "significant" witness in an already-weak case.

Unfortunately, Hale was convicted with what seemed to be an unanimous guilty verdict. 

Hale's lawyers tried getting him to a safer prison away from the town to serve his sentence but the train they were traveling in was stopped by an angry mob.

The mob forced the lawyers away and kidnapped Hale. The movie only implies the manner of Hale's death. The movie also ends on a somber and angry note from Hale's widowed wife, calling out the reporter and district attorney for their unethical performance as members of the press and of the law, respectively.

Unfortunately, the real man depicted as Hale is still being judged after all this time with a new depiction on the stages of Broadway.

Parade (depicted right), a Broadway musical that dramatizes the same events of They Won't Forget, is more closely related to the reality of the case and people involved. For one thing, there was no school or professor or headmasters or school janitor. The conviction had been largely believed to be a false conviction.

In 1913, Mary Phagen was a 13-year-old girl (changed to 16-year old Mary Clay in the movie) who was murdered in Marietta, Georgia. She was a child laborer in the National Pencil Factory. 

Leo Frank (changed to Professor Hale) was a mechanical engineer that became the new director of the National Pencil Factory shortly before Phagen's death. He was born to a Jewish family in Texas that moved to New York, where he was raised. He gained his mechanical engineering degree in Atlanta, Georgia, and was a significant leader in the local Atlanta Jewish community.

The night watchman, Newt Lee, was the one who found Phagen in the basement. He was a black gentleman who was arrested based on very circumstantial evidence found with Phagen. In the movie, Lee was a janitor who was arrested. However, in reality, Lee was separate from the actual janitor, another black man by the name of Jim Conley.

Multiple men had been arrested for Phagen's murder but the man that faced trial was Frank. Frank had been arrested later in the same year. 

What was the same in the movie was that Conley's testimony was vital in the convicting of Frank (below, left). He claimed that Frank forced him to be an accomplice in the murder. Today, it's believed that Conley was the actual killer of the young Phagen (below, right).

Frank originally was sentenced to death but the Georgia governor changed it into being a life sentence due to lack of evidence. It was true that the media was heavily engaged in the trial, so much so that the trial was nicknamed a "trial of the century." While the movie said the reporters called Hale guilty, the reality is that the local media said that Frank's guilty conviction was a tragedy.

It was the rest of the country that despised Frank and supported the weak guilty conviction. Hate and anti-semitism rose against him as well as the jewish community.

Unfortunately, the movie did get something right. Two years after his conviction, a group of armed men kidnapped Frank and lynched him in Marietta, Georgia, where the trial had been. Additionally, the lynchers were never brought to justice.

The Anti-Defamation League was created due to Frank's case and trial. The Ku Klux Klan was also revived around the same time.

It wasn't until 1986 that Leo Frank was pardoned for the murder of Mary Phagen
.

Learned EOTO: Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass (right), born February 1818 in Maryland, was a well-known abolitionist, early suffragist, publisher, orator, writer and former slave. 

Douglass was very vocal in his anti-slavery speak. He published and spoke about abolishing slavery quickly after escaping his own slavery. He was even a leader in the abolition movement before and after the Civil War up until his death in 1895. 

In the realm of journalism, he stood out as a mixed black man, as a man who denounced the practice of slavery, sought out justice of human rights, and for having a New York newspaper under the name The North Star.

The name of this paper, first issued in 1847, was a reference to slavery. Polaris, nicknamed and popularly known as "The North Star," was a significant guide to many escaped slaves searching for their permanent freedom. Polaris was the marker for slaves to head north. Douglass' paper hoped to facilitate expanding the range of permanent freedom farther south.

Soon after starting up The North Star (left), Douglass gained two other papers. In 1851, through a merger, Douglass created the Frederick Douglass’ Paper. In 1859, he started publishing Douglass’s Monthly, which published editions only monthly. Once the Civil War began and his recruitment efforts of black soldiers, Douglass was forced to stop printing and publishing by 1863. 

After the war, Douglass ran one last newspaper called The New National Era from 1870 to 1874. 

While Douglass is best known for his civil rights movement in abolition and suffrage, he remains a significant early figure for using journalism and publication as a means of gaining justice and equality between the races and between the genders.

Why Use Journalism for Justice?

When you don't see yourself in media, it shouldn't come as a surprise if you find a drive by making yourself part of representation.

It's the same in journalism. It's the same in the legal system. It's the same in TV shows and movies. Everyone wants to be represented or simply understood in media or in the career they want to be in. 

TV and movies have moved into creating more visual representation and using minority actors, like Native Americans or darker-skinned Mexicans. However, journalism stays following the big story at the risk of maintaining the media outlet or the specialization of journalism, legally and financially.

One such risk was the famed Weinstein exposé. 

Between the 1990s and 2015, victims of a then-major Hollywood executive, Harvey Weinstein, were not heard. Allegations of sexual misconduct, abuse and harassment, and rape kept popping up. Weinstein and his team kept buying their silence.

It took one journalist to give these women their voices back, regardless if they went public or never spoke about the events. In 2016, Ronan Farrow (left), then at NBC, began his investigation into Weinstein, unknowingly being followed by men hired by a private Israeli intelligence company called Black Cube. 

NBC claims to have never had the need to run Farrow's Weinstein expose because Farrow hadn't had enough sources to publish the story. Farrow claims that NBC actually kept killing his story before he could get any new sources.

Farrow and coworkers working on the investigation quickly grew frustrated at the story being caught and killed before editing. It wasn't long before Farrow left NBC for The New Yorker in 2017.

The New Yorker published Farrow's investigation within the same year under the name From Aggressive Overtures To Sexual Assault, Harvey Weinstein's Accusers Tell Their Stories.

A second exposé quickly followed from The New York Times writing that Weinstein paid off his accusers.

Et voila. 

Weinstein was charged in May 2018 in New York with rape and a number of other charges. He was convicted in February 2020 for the criminal sex act of forcibly performing oral sex and rape in the third degree. He's been sentenced to 23 years in prison in the state of New York.

Had Farrow not called out Weinstein through the power of the press, the numerous women with allegations may have never seen some form of justice.

I want to give people their voices back. I was one of those little kids that never truly saw herself in the media or being reported on with a positive light as so many white people had while I grew up to today. 

On the right, a graph shows that even in 2022, white representation overcame all other minorities at over 50% of media. A majority of minorities, including my own, don't break double digit percentages.

I may not look like it, but I am of Mexican decent. I never saw a Mexican on the shows and movies I watched as a kid.

In 2018, Trump exclusively called the immigrants of Latin-American decent at the southern U.S border "rapists and drug dealers" and generalized them as all "Mexicans." That's no truth.

I chose journalism to publish the truth, which seems to be fading behind gossip and entertainment media. I want to publish the actual truth about people as individuals and to erase often-harmful generalizations of minorities.

Justice can be achieved by journalism. It just needs to be used appropriately, ethically, and morally.

A History of the Society of Professional Journalists

 Journalism has long been rooted in United States history as a manner of maintaining just some of what would become protected rights of a free sovereign nation as well as a means of publishing protests of government action. Part of the U.S Constitution's First Amendment, ratified in the U.S Bill of Rights in December of 1791, protects the press since the earliest days of the United States by stating that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech." 

The protection of the press and pride the American people had in the lifetimes since the ratification remains strong, both as a career choice and a degree choice in higher education across the nation. A group of 10 young men attending an Indiana private university were one example of passionate Americans, all interested in journalistic careers and "upholding high standards in the profession."

On April 17, 1909, 10 students on the DePauw University campus in Greencastle, Indiana, formed a then-honorary fraternity titled Sigma Delta Chi. SDX quickly expanded to Kansas, Michigan, and the University of Denver within the next year. The following two years, even more chapters expanded the reach of Sigma Delta Chi at the University of Denver, Washington University, Ohio State, the University of Virginia, Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. In 1912, the fraternity held its first national convention.

Two years later, SDX evolved into a professional fraternity which sparked the establishment of four professional chapters in four cities. As the years went on, the number of "pro chapters" quickly grew into double-digits, reaching 37 by 1949.

During the time of the rapid professional expansion, SDX continued to have national conventions, two of which rejected the possibility of elevating the fraternity to a professional society. In 1960, a third convention viewed the possibility of becoming a professional society. It succeeded.

Credit: SPJ

As a freshly-declared professional society with 12 regions filled with chapters, SDX faced new challenges as well as unheard-of propositions. At the 1969 San Diego convention, a revolutionary motion for the society passed to admit women into the society. It only took two days for 10 women to be initiated to a student chapter at Saint Bonaventure University, a private New York university. A total of 70 women joined within a month after the change. Two years later, a woman was even elected to the SDX board.

With the SDX society and board thriving across the United States, it comes as no surprise as it rapidly went through changes over the course of the next 15 years. A woman, Jean Otto, was elected as SDX president in 1980. The society also launched Project Watchdog two years later in an effort to educate the people on the free press. Two name changes also occurred. 

The first name change came shortly after Project Watchdog. SDX became the "Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi" in 1973 before shortening to simply the "Society of Professional Journalists" in 1988. The SPJ continued to push education on free press and its rights, even creating a grassroots effort called Project Sunshine in 1991. 

The SPJ continues to be prominent professional society throughout the United States, holding chapters in both public and private institutions of higher education. While the SPJ doesn't pass significant motions or execute large-scale projects like Project Watchdog or Sunshine anymore, the SPJ still encourages and supports thousands of journalists in both professional chapters and student chapters across the nation. Journalists today still receive awards and recognition through the society and many still use the resources now published on the SPJ website.