Jewish Invention Myths: The Principles of Journalism/Journalistic Ethics

One of the more unusual ‘jewish invention’ claims is that idea that jews invented the principles of modern journalism and/or objectivity/ethics in journalism.

‘MNews’ for example claims that:

‘Joseph Pulitzer – Journalism Principles, Pulitzer Prize

The most prestigious journalism award in the U.S. — the Pulitzer Prize — is named after Joseph Pulitzer.’ (1)

The problem with this is that it complete mistakes the history of journalism since as early as the seventeenth century in England editors of the periodic press century were already concerned with objectivity and journalistic ethics and often went to some lengths to collate different sources to try and arrive at the truth. (2)

One such example of an editor trying to achieve relative objectivity was Samuel Pecke of London who created a kind of English ‘New York Times’ in the form of ‘A Perfect Diurnall of the Passages in Parliament’ in the 1630-1640s.

Indeed, as Ward writes:

‘Journalism and journalism ethics trace their histories back to cautious entrepreneurs such as Archer, Butter, and Bourne and to more audacious political partisans such as Nedham. Some publishers, such as Pecke, were both business-like and partisan. The first journalists were a grab bag of unlikely ethical pioneers – tailors, army captains, doctors, Oxford graduates, clerics, and unrestrained propagandists. Some editors were talented, knowledgeable writers; others, dullards with a pen. Some were reasonable men; others, fanatics. Not a few were opportunistic, changing their tune with the winds of politics. Ideological passion drove others. Some made a tidy profit; others ended their lives in poverty.’ (4)

This mishmash and struggle for both the most accurate news as well as the best-selling news then began to create what we think of today as modern journalism and the idea of journalistic ethics as Ward further explains:

‘The newsbooks’ legacy for journalism ethics is three-fold. First, it created a number of journalistic practices that would become the “standards” of journalism ethics in the centuries ahead. Second, it established an ethical lexicon for news journalism, including notions that anticipated journalistic objectivity. Third, it was a major player in the first public sphere, and therefore its ethical rhetoric anticipated a public ethic for journalism.

The newsbooks pioneered journalistic practices such as “headlines” on the title page, the sensational human-interest story, the leading article (editorial), the publishing of advertisements, and the use of correspondents in the field, especially during war. The weekly newsbooks began to separate news and commentary and initiated practices that sought to make reports more factual, balanced, and reliable. Editors questioned their sources for bias, tried to balance reports, preferred reputable correspondents and eyewitnesses, and gave the date, time, and place of story. Today, such practices are still the building blocks of an objective news report.’ (5)

Indeed a ‘public philosophy of journalism arose in eighteenth-century England as the daily newspaper emerged’ (6) and by the nineteenth century much of what we’d call ‘objective journalism’ had already largely emerged. (7)

As Ward explains:

‘Joseph Milando, after analysing 12 journalism textbooks and manuals from 1867 to 1899, concluded that education in the field had already “embraced” objectivity as a central tenet, although it did not use the term. In 1867, New York publisher Jesse Haney published a Guide to Authorship, which said that the editor should “chronicle the facts,” giving his personal views in another portion of the paper. Hints to Young Editors justified objectivity: “There is no reason why the news of a Republican paper should not be read by a Democrat with as much confidence as that of a paper of his own party, and vice versa. It is only by presenting clear, unbiased records of fact that any benefit can be derived from the accompanying comments.” In 1884, George Gaskell’s How to Write for the Press stressed that reporters must cultivate “impersonality” and avoid words that “arouse the passions.” The Blue Pencil and How to Avoid It by Alexander Nevins supported the division of news and opinion. “The facts, when concisely written, speak for themselves,” argued Nevins.

In 1894, Edwin Shuman, the Chicago Tribune’s literary editor, published the first comprehensive journalism textbook, Steps into Journalism. It was reprinted several times and was still in use when journalism schools started after 1900. Steps stressed authoritative sources and news agency standards. The book contained the basics of traditional, objective journalism: the inverted pyramid, non-partisanship, detachment, reliance on observable facts, and balance. “It is the mission of the reporter to reproduce facts and the opinions of others, not to express his own.”’ (8)

Put another way there were already systemized and widely known principles of journalism long before Pulitzer even owned a newspaper and that what jews and their apologists are exploiting to make the claim that he invented such principles/ethics is the general ignorance of the history of journalism and the fame of the journalism award that bears his name: the Pulitzer.

References

(1) https://mnews.world/en/news/the-great-jews-and-their-inventions

(2) Stephen Ward, 2015, ‘The Invention of Journalism Ethics: The Path to Objectivity and Beyond’, 2nd Edition, McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal, pp. 127-128; 132-133

(3) Ibid., pp. 135-137

(4) Ibid., p. 139

(5) Ibid., p. 140

(6) Ibid., p. 153

(7) Ibid., pp. 213-216

(8) Ibid., pp. 231-232