Free Republic

I.S.S. Gives Way to New League for Democracy The New York Call - November 19, 1921. Organization's Birth Celebrated at Dinner in Yorkville Casino - Will take in Non-Collegians.With the avowed purpose of "mobilizing the brains of the middle-class in the service of the labor movement," the League for Industrial Democracy has come into being on the framework of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. The new organization's birth was celebrated by a dinner at Yorkville Casino last night, addressed by Robert Morss Lovett, president of the League; Scott Nearing, Norman Thomas and Roger N. Baldwin. The league, according to Mr. Thomas,...

The attitude of progressives never ceases to amaze me. I should be used to it by now, you would think I would be - considering how many of their books I thumb through. But I don't think it's possible to entirely get used to things such as this: The phrase "natural rights of Englishmen" is vague and meaningless in the history of constitutional development and political philosophy, and deserves to stand with that other equally abused phrase, much on the lips of the colonists at this time, "taxation without representation." Neither had any literal meaning in fact, but as historical...

In his book Public Opinion, Walter Lippmann wrote the following about what the CPI achieved: (page 47) Probably this is the largest and the most intensive effort to carry quickly a fairly uniform set of ideas to all the people of a nation. The older proselyting worked more slowly, perhaps more surely, but never so inclusively. Now if it required such extreme measures to reach everybody in time of crisis, how open are the more normal channels to men's minds? The Administration was trying, and while the war continued it very largely succeeded, I believe, in creating something that might...

The Triumph of an Idea Beginning and Conclusion of Seven Years of Public Service "Meanwhile, please God, as ever hitherto in a crisis of the Republic, a man will emerge from comparative political obscurity, capable of holding high the torch of personal liberty, that all the people may see the clear light and revert gladly to the pristine standard of individual and industrial progress which, despite temporary retrogression, continues to be the glory of the nation." - North American Review, August, 1910 Selections from about Three Hundred Columns of Editorial and Special Articles Published in "Harper's Weekly" and "The North...

THE BASIC PROBLEM OF DEMOCRACYWHAT MODERN LIBERTY MEANS BY WALTER LIPPMANN FROM our recent experience it is clear that the traditional liberties of speech and opinion rest on no solid foundation. At a time when the world needs above all other things the activity of generous imaginations and the creative leadership of planning and inventive minds, our thinking is shriveled with panic. Time and energy that should go to building and restoring are instead consumed in warding off the pin-pricks of prejudice and fighting a guerilla war against misunderstanding and intolerance. For suppression is felt, not simply by the scattered...

We in America have a problem with media bias. Who or where does it come from? What did those people say, write, or do? Did it evolve by multiple steps, or by one step? When did the use of narrative get introduced? In an attempt to answer some of these questions and others, the result is a paper that I have recently written, here. I put it up online for all to read and examine, and I hope there will be those who will take the time to follow the footnotes back and read the original source material. These are...

I have completed a study paper on the roots of progressive journalism. I did not do this for any of my classes, I did this on my own because I wanted to and because I truely think it needed to be studied in a more formal fashion. I have been looking around at a handful of peer-reviewed journals that deal with history, but I do not trust them. Plus, there is the issue of copyright and I do not want what I wrote to fall into the trap of being locked away on some journal's pages on the month of...

I just thought that fact needed to be stated. Following up on a previous blog posting where I went a little bit into the revisionist history of Robin Hood, "Who polluted Robin Hood?", wouldn't recognition that the Sheriff was a government employee pretty much put the whole thing to bed? "Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor" No, not really. The Sheriff of Nottingham was a government employee. Robin Hood stole from the government and gave to the poor, because they were being oppressed by the tyranny of high taxation and only dear Robin had the...

Rush talked about a politico story back on November 3rd which relies heavily on establishment insiders giving good talking points to left wing journalists, so as to be able to hit members of the Tea Party harder over the head. Since then, we have seen the GOP win the election overwhelmingly, and then go on to give Obama everything he wants. Specifically a trillion dollar spending bill and amnesty. There are a lot of people out there who believe that the Republican Establishment is out to GET conservatives, and quite frankly, I don't see how anybody can argue against it....

Jim Geraghty published an interesting article the other day about 'Narrative Journalism' titled "What If the Media’s ‘Narrative Journalism’ Harms Their Own Causes? It has been widely discussed in light of what it contains, so I am going to go right for what is outside the box. Narrative Journalism, in this context, also necessarily implies narrative protesters. The narrative being pushed by the journalist does not have to be true by any means, but to the protesters, it is very real. The challenge is that we as citizens are supposed to be able to trust the journalist establishment without fear...

Upton Sinclair's 1929 letter to John BeardsleyDear John: I will write you a few notes about the matter concerning which we were talking last night. When I went to Boston the last time in October 1928 I was completely naive about the Sacco-Vanzetti case, having accepted the defense propaganda entirely. But I very quickly began to sense something wrong in the situation. There was an air of mystery about the Boston anarchists, and I saw they had something to conceal. Then in Sacco's cross examination I detected what seemed to be a slip in his alibi. I began asking catch...

Robin Hood was not a jacobin nor a socialist, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. But here, I will highlight where he was transformed into one. The title of the book is: "Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, Now Extant Relative to that Celebrated English Outlaw ; to which are Prefixed Historical Anecdotes of His Life", authored by Joseph Ritson, who was sympathetic to Jacobinism. This book was first printed in 1795. This book is a collection of his works, which means that he was spreading this filth around in who...

If you are someone who is upset about the state of Journalism today, and the one-sided ideological view that they take on every issue, then the essay "Government by Journalism" will be a real eye opener for you. But William Thomas Stead was not content only with manipulating his readers through his one single paper, the Pall Mall Gazette, Stead looked for someone who would truely bring his idea to new heights - manipulate readers in greater numbers than he could ever possibly reach. He said: I have been long on the look out for a man to appear who...

I have found this series to be intriguing, now that I own one. This pamphlet series is 45 publications long, it ran from 1932 to 1934. They are as follows: (author, title) 1: Rebecca West, Arnold Bennett Himself 2: Stuart Chase, Out of the Depression--and After: A Prophecy 3: Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, The New Russian Policy: June 23, 1931 4: Norman Edwin Himes, The Truth about Birth Control: With a Bibliography of Birth Control Literature 5: Walter Lippmann, Notes on the Crisis 6: Charles Austin Beard,The Myth of Rugged American Individualism 7: Rexford Guy Tugwell, Mr. Hoover's Economic Policy 8:...

HELPING TO MAKE A PRESIDENT, BY WILLIAM INGLIS (Parts 1 and 2) From Collier's, October 7th, 1916. Mr. Inglis was associated with Colonel George Harvey in the conduct of "Harper's Weekly" from 1906 until 1913, when Colonel Harvey sold the paper. During that time Colonel Harvey undertook a campaign of publicity to make Woodrow Wilson president. During the conduct of this campaign Mr. Inglis was Colonel Harvey's first lieutenant.FOREWORD.- From a college professorship to the presidency of the United States in eight short years is a mighty leap. But Woodrow Wilson took it gallantly and landed in the White House....

Standard Oil and its Hirelings of the PressWERE it not for the newspaper press and periodicals of the Hearst's Magazine sort, interests like Mr. Archbold and Standard Oil long ago would have stolen everything to the public back fence. As matters stand, their villain pillage has hardly stopped short of it. Also, it wasn't the law, but the printing press which halted them. The press is the policeman of popular right. President Wilson, observing - and also fearing - the pernicious Criminal Privilege activities of certain subsidized newspapers, in the war over tariff schedules now being fought out in the...

Back in 1990, Richard Streckfuss, an Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln wrote a paper titled "Objectivity in Journalism", in which he makes finding the answer to this question remarkably easy. Before the phrase "Objective Journalism" was born, science and news gathering were fused together in thought by Walter Lippmann, the Father of Modern Journalism. Realistically speaking, this one single thing is what earns Lippmann that title. Lippmann's ideal of the objective journalist can be found here, in his book titled "Liberty and the News", on page 82: With this increase of prestige must go a professional...

SOCIALISM INFECTING THE CLERGYTHREE hundred of the clergy of this country are declared to be allied with the Socialist movement by open profession, while many more are secretly in sympathy with the cause, but hesitate for prudential reasons to make an open avowal. Only a few years ago, it is stated, Socialist principles seemed to be confined to a small number of Unitarian preachers, "who, being radical in theology, readily became radical in sociology likewise." But now, we read in a statement issued by the Christian Socialist Fellowship, "not only do the Unitarians smell of the malady, but Episcopalians by...

THE AMERICAN YELLOW PRESS.By Sydney Brooks The late Mr. Joseph Pulitzer was unquestionably one of the most remarkable personalities of latter-day America. Indomitable by nature, of quick, unshackled perceptions, passionate to learn and to experiment, and with a strong vein of idealism running through his lust for power and success and domination, he was fortunate in the fate that landed him, forty-seven years ago, in Boston when America was on the very point of plunging into the most amazing era of material development and exploitation that the world has yet witnessed. The penniless son of a Jewish father and a...

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF YELLOW JOURNALISMBY LYDIA KINGSMILL COMMANDER YELLOW journalism is outwardly distinguished by the flaring makeup of the paper, the striking headlines in startling type and the free use of illustrations; by the attention given to crime, sports, divorces and the tragic aspects of life in general; and by the constant appeal to the emotions in the presentation of the news. Human interest goes into every column; everything is a story and is told as such. No papers were ever before, no others are now, so execrated and so beloved as are the yellow journals. But whether approved or...