![]() The anecdote about William Randolph Hearst’s vow to “furnish the war” with Spain- purportedly contained in a telegram to the artist Frederic Remington while on assignment for Hearst in Cuba- is almost certainly apocryphal. 20 The notion, for example, that the Sun’s yellow press rivals in New York City fomented the Spanish-American War of 1898 is as implausible as it is irresistible and undying. Recent scholarship has demonstrated how understanding of that period has been distorted by myth and imprecision. Doing so presents a fresh reminder about the necessity of treating cautiously the accepted wisdom about U.S. ![]() It is important for other reasons to fill in details and clarify lingering questions about the classic editorial. “Audacity is a necessary feature of every good editorial.” 19 “Better no editorials than dreary ones,” journalists’ trade publication advised in 1894. More likely, Church was guided by the contemporaneous view that editorials should be memorably bold. For such observations can constitute a national gathering of sorts, validating emotions that people want to share but can’t quite express.” 18 A “national gathering of sorts” was probably far from what Church and the Sun had in mind in 1897, however. For example, Thomas Vinciguerra wrote in the New York Times in September 1997 that the timeless appeal of “Is There A Santa Claus?” seems “to suggest that what most readers of editorial pages care about are ruminations on single subjects like blizzards and the death of a princess. Perhaps inevitably, some descriptions of the editorial’s enduring importance have bordered on the extreme. Love, hope, belief-all have a place on the editorial page.” 16 That it appeared in September and was not held in the pending file until Christmastime signaled, Beach wrote, the importance of “never holding anything back for imagined future work.” 17 “Newspapers today need Church’s poetry on their editorial pages,” Eric Newton, then of the Freedom Forum’s Newseum, wrote in 1997, the centenary of “Is There A Santa Claus?” Newton added: “Too often journalists climb upon stacks of facts and fall asleep.” 15 Geo Beach, writing in Editor & Publisher in December 1997, said of the editorial: “It was brave writing. More broadly, a better understanding of the origins and emergence of the iconic editorial is important because it has been described as offering enduring lessons 14 for journalists. The trade journal Fourth Estate said it represented “a most novel census of its readers, one of a sort we do not remember having heard of before.” 13 The newspaper said it wanted “to know its readers better-their names, their occupations, and their tastes.” 12 The survey attracted a fair amount of attention. In 1897, for example, the Boston Journal asked readers to complete and return questionnaires that asked about the occupation of the person buying the newspaper, the number of readers per issue, and the most appealing sections or content. newspapers have long been keen to find out about their readers’ interests and preferences. ![]() Viewed another way, the Sun’s reluctant embrace of “Is There A Santa Claus?” suggests a remoteness of newspapers from their readers, even though U.S. Repeatedly over the years, readers asked the Sun to reprint the editorial ultimately, the newspaper relented. The editorial’s popularity thus offers insights into the latent power of readers to influence content. Notably, a better appreciation of the editorial’s emergence offers a reminder that newspaper editors are not always as perceptive as their readers in identifying and calling attention to journalism of significance and lasting value. The grudging emergence of American journalism's classic editorial: New details about “Is There A Santa Claus?” American Journalism, 22, (2) Spring 2005Ī fuller and more accurate understanding of the origins and emergence of “Is There A Santa Claus?” is important for several reasons. The grudging emergence of American journalism's classic editorial: New details about "Is There A Santa Claus?"
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |