News, Newspapering and New York City

At the turn of the 20th century, New York City was a news mecca, home to a score of daily and weekly newspapers with names like The Times, The World, The Journal, The Herald, The American, The Sun, and The Post.

Literacy amongst white folks in the U.S. was about 90 percent then; 55 percent among Blacks and other people of color nationwide, although one would expect that percentage was larger in urban areas in the Yankee North.

New York was a readers' city, and newsstands offered something for everybody. The Times was the straightlaced newspaper of record (The Old Gray Lady), Pulitzer's World and Hearst's Journal waged wars of sensational yellow journalism, The Herald spun people stories, and The Post spouted Hamiltonian conservatism.

In fact, many general circulation newspapers were politically aligned or at least party sympathizers well into the 20th century.

Partisanship was eventually cooled by market forces that shifted the newspaper's revenue stream from readers to advertisers. Advertisers wanted to reach as many eyeballs as possible, so the newshole became more neutral, and viewpoints moved from the front page to editorial.

In addition, the rise of professional journalism schools infused newsrooms everywhere with staffers trained in the same standards of objectivity that had shaped news service reporting since the 1830s.

Later changes in market forces altered the landscape again and laid waste to legacy media. These changes left public officials under-scrutinized and the general public under-served. Partisan media resurged in social media fragmentation.

That the regime has no truck with traditional journalism practices, choosing to propagate misinformation through social media, and has stacked the White House Press Corps with conservatives surprises nobody who has been paying attention.

It's good that many journos still bristle at charges of bias or "fake news" from a regime shamelessly dedicated to both. But they should not feel compelled to defend themselves in the face of such bad faith.

Rather, adopt the demeanor of the Old Gray Lady when labelled such by its flashy, sensationalistic neighbors. Stay the course and outlive them.