BackStory

The following links and documents relate to the BackStory episode “Just the Facts?: Partisanship and the Press”, originally broadcast in March of 2009. You can listen to the entire episode here.

All Centuries

• Corporation for Public Broadcasting report on the history of objectivity in American journalism (PDF)
• A primer on the history of journalism ethics
• Essays on the print culture of American women
• Three centuries of broadsides and printed ephemera

18th Century

• Thomas Jefferson’s ever-changing views on freedom of the press
• Historian Jill Lepore recounts the long history of newspaper industry end-days
• The Life and Adventures of Peter Porcupine by William Cobbett
• The printer & binder in colonial Virginia
• A 19th Century account of the history of printing in America

19th Century

• The original text and illustrations of The Sun’s 1835 “Great Moon Hoax“
• An interview with Matthew Goodman
• Matthew Goodman compares 19th century media hoaxes to those of today
• Media critic Bill Powers explores the similarities between today’s media landscape and that of the 19th century
• The 19th Century in Print: The Making of America in Books & Periodicals
• penny press

20th Century & Beyond

• A collection of articles for the Atlantic by Michael Kinsley
• Dean of Columbia School of Journalism on objectivity
• A wealth of reporting on objectivity from NPR’s On the Media
• Michael Schudson on saving American journalism