Went to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL - along one wall there were page after page of newspapers vilifying Lincoln. They were no different then with their lying and disingenuousness. http://lincolnlibraryandmuseum.com/
Re: “They were no different then with their lying and disingenuousness.”
You are exactly right. Yellow journalism was just as rampant then as now, except that there were newspapers who openly took the side of one candidate or another, that is both political parties were represented, and, everyone knew which candidate or party a particular paper favored.
Today, as we all know, the mainstream press, TV, and news radio broadcasts are all on ONE side, on ONE party. The only outlet for conservative media are a couple of newspapers and a handful of talk-show hosts - which the liberals want to silence.
During the Civil War, Gen. William Sherman absolutely hated “journalists” and refused them access to his military campsites or any military information. Why? Because they would print how many soldiers he had, where they were, what direction they were heading - in other words, he saw them as out and out traitors who didn’t care that the enemy would freely get valuable information from their newspaper, and of course, would lead to many soldiers being killed, wounded, or captured. He saw them as scoundrels without any moral restraint.
Once, when he heard that a riverboat had capsized with a large contingent of “journalists” on board, he sarcasticly remarked that the boat must have capsized “because of all that weighty brain power onboard.”