One thing’s true about studying history: often, there’s nothing new under the sun.
With today’s wavering trust of the media comes a look back at when the polarity of the American Revolution reflected in, and was reflected by, newspapers with editorial bents. The strife in the Colonies was so intense that, for a while, the most dangerous position a newspaper could take was one of balance and neutrality! Since early papers (17th century on) were reprinted news from Europe, the first source of mistrust was British journalism about the Colonies. Soon the two world views were so disparate that the truth was often missed in the middle. Even as political parties — Washington’s dreaded “factions” — played roles in elections, advocacy journalism was the rule rather than the exception.
