How did the press become non-partisan?

By Al Portner

The notion of a non-partisan press serving a watchdog function without inserting its own opinions into news stories is amusing when one digs a bit to find out from whence the idea originally came. Journalists are taught to report the Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why without regard to party or ideological persuasion.

Has it always been thus? Or is this just a part of the business cycle that is now completing its 1880 beginning orbit of its readers/viewers? How did the press become the whipping boy for all politicians? What causes all the animosity that seems to display itself against the media?

The notion of a non-partisan media took hold only after ownership consolidation of media outlets got rolling. This coincided with the development of big box stores. At first, we had J.C. Penney and Sears Roebuck, Kresge’s, Woolworth, and Montgomery Ward. The advertisers wanted to reduce the number of buys required to cover their cities.

In 1900 alone, sixteen daily newspapers circulated in New York City, not including the additional newspapers produced in the various boroughs. Additional specialty newspapers were produced in each of the five boroughs. Each of these newspapers had a very specific audience component whose interests were paired with the newspapers story selection and style. The circulation of each was very limited by their specialized readership and the technology of the day.

Over time, the newspapers consolidated. Speeds improved. Publishers gave News/Editorial departments the instruction to write stories from a neutral point of view so as to appear as if they were not promoting any particular point of view. The idea was to appeal to a broader audience segment and capture the big box merchants.

Prior to this time, newspapers printed whatever they chose to fill their space and the needs of their readers. It was common to see advertising on the front page. Fiction and hoaxes were enjoyed. Newspaper pages were limited. In 1884, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) asked the new Associated Press Bureau Chief in New York to place a promotional piece on the wire. The man demanded a $150 payment in exchange for doing so. Clemens was outraged. But this didn’t stop him from providing reviews of his books already written by friends (notably by William Dean Howells) to other publications.

The result was fairly predictable. As with the lover, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” The slant of a story is in the eye of the reader. Since newspapers after consolidation started were now writing for people who agreed, disagreed, or had no opinion… they were guaranteed to offend on average two-thirds of the readers at all times.

While this was probably always the case, if a writer just wrote for people who agree with his or her point of view (as before the beginning of consolidation), the writer could usually be assured that his or her story would be mainly well received. On the other hand, if he or she wrote about a political person or issue that would be disapproved of by the audience, he or she could be assured that he or she might be castigated. But the disagreeable person was not an important constituent and the writer didn’t care much.

This was also the beginning of the falling away of much of the audience. Who wants to read a publication with which you disagree two thirds of the time? The hostility began to grow.

The press has been damned as liberal. Media has taken on the role of adversary to whom-ever is in political power. A non-partisan media that reports news without opinion is a relatively new phenomenon. Prior to 1900, it probably did not exist at all. Up until through the Kennedy Administration, it lived up to certain ground rules which protected some pretty outrageous personal behavior.

This may be a built in bias. Actually, many writers are political conservatives. But conservatives are usually more certain of their positions than liberals. Living a life of asking questions tends to make a writer seem a liberal by itself.

Remember the old joke? I don’t belong to an organized party – I’m a Democrat.

The discussion is summed up by a great quote from Winston Churchill: “Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains. ...”

Al Portner is a former daily newspaper editor and publisher who has operated newspapers in seven states from Maryland on the east to Hawaii on the west. He is currently the proprietor of The Assignment Desk, LLC, an editorial services consortium with over 200 affiliate writers, photographers, and designers.

Portner is also the author of hundreds of articles and the forthcoming non-fiction book “Mark Twain and the Tale of Grant’s Memoir.” He can be reached at alanportner@theassignmentdesk.net. The Assignment Desk URL address is http://www.theassignmentdesk.net/.