The most beloved newspaper editorial

The Centre Daily Times today reprinted, "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus," continuing a tradition that many newspapers across the country have been doing for decades.  Published in the New York Sun on September 21, 1897, it is perhaps the most beloved American newspaper editorial. "Yes, Virginia" has been translated in 20 languages and even set to music. A good deal has been written about why it resonates more than 100 years later. But for now, it's enough just to remember the famous lines:

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.  He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exists, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias."

Remembering coverage of JFK's assassination

CBS News is recognizing the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination by live streaming its coverage of the event. It's one of most simplest but most effective ways I've seen of remembering how the dominant TV network of that time, anchored by Walter Cronkite, reported the shattering news.

Auburn's Rural Studio making a difference

I am proud of many things that Auburn University, my undergraduate alma mater, does.  But certainly one of the best is the Rural Studio, run by the College of Architecture, Design and Construction. The studio is designed to teach students about the social responsibility of architecture while also providing homes and buildings for communities in poor, rural Alabama. Founded in 1993 by two architecture professors, Samuel Mockbee and Dennis K. Ruth, the Rural Studio has built more than 80 remarkable projects in Hale, Perry and Marengo counties. Much of the construction materials used in the projects are discarded or salvaged.

One of the Rural Studio's most interesting projects is the $20,000 house.  According to studio's web site:

"The $20k House is an ongoing research project at the Rural Studio that seeks to address the pressing need for decent and affordable housing in Hale County, Alabama. 

Nearly 30% of individuals in Hale County live in poverty. Due to the lack of conventional credit for people with this level of income, and insufficient knowledge about alternative sources of funding, trailers offer the only chance for home ownership . . . The $20k house project intends to produce a model home that could be reproduced on a large scale, and thereby become a viable alternative to the trailer in this area. The challenge is to build a house for $20,000, ten to twelve thousand of which will go towards materials and the remainder on contracted labor. Once a truly successful model has been designed, the aim is to sell the houses in conjunction with the “502 Direct Loan” provided by the Rural Housing Service."

Here is a recent story about the Rural Studio with photos of its work.

101 Objects that made America

The November issue of Smithsonian magazine features what the magazine calls the "101 Objects that Made America."  The objects were selected from the 137 million artifacts in the museum's collection. Like any project of this kind, the list includes both the obvious and not-so obvious.  The former include the Bald Eagle, a gold nugget, and the Model T.  The latter include Pueblo jars, a suitcase from Japanese internment, and R2-D2.

I found all the objects fascinating, but here are seventeen that especially resonated with me:

• Neil Armstrong's Spacesuit
• Lewis and Clark's compass
• Remington typewriter
• Louis Armstrong's trumpet
• Justice O'Connor's robe
• Lincoln's top hat
• Appomattox table and chairs
• Greensboro lunch counter
• Levi's jeans
• Morse telegraph
• Stagecoach
• Negro League baseball
• Teddy bear
• M*A*S*H sign
• Geronimo portrait
• Thomas Jefferson's desk
• Star-Spangled Banner

Steel City has rich radio history

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today published the first of a four-part series on the city's radio history. Pittsburgh is the home of KDKA, generally considered to be the first licensed commercial radio station, but as the story points out there is more to the city's radio legacy than that.  Westinghouse, based in the city, helped monetize the growing radio history with its manufacturing of crystal sets.  WHOO went on the air in 1948 featuring various ethnic programming and launched the career of Mary Dee Dudley, the country's first black disk jockey.  Dave Garroway, the first host of NBC's Today show, worked at KDKA in the 1940s.

Online encyclopedias valuable

I recently contributed an essay on Civil War journalism in Alabama to the Encyclopedia of Alabama. I always enjoy writing encyclopedia articles because they are written for a general audience.

I just learned about the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, one of a growing number of city encyclopedias in this counry. Among its many outstanding entries are one on printing and publishing and one on the recording industry in the City of Brotherly Love. I certainly knew about Philadelphia's rich publishing history. However, before reading the essay I knew nothing about its interesting recording history.

The history of a pioneering magazine

I'm watching a show about the 80th anniversary of Esquire. The show is on the new Esquire television network and so it is largely celebratory about the magazine that prides itself on taking a skewed look at our culture. However, I've learned a lot from the show, particularly about Esquire's history of great storytelling and its provocative, often controversial, covers.

I read Esquire in my younger years, but I've only picked it up occasionally the last couple of decades.  I can't say the show makes we want to start reading Esquire again regularly, but I certainly appreciate its history even more.  I also have to give a nod to any magazine that can find a way to publish successfully for so long.

Happy 25th anniversary to The Onion

Congratulations to The Onion on its silver anniversary. "America's Finest News Source" was founded by two students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1988 and gained national attention when its web site was launched eight years later. I wish I could think of something clever to write in honor of the event (a good headline would be especially appropriate). But I'll just have to say thanks for the laughs--and we all look forward to more years of great news satire.

Post overlooked King speech

Today is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King's historic "I Have a Dream" speech.  The news media has been doing anniversary stories on the event for weeks, a good thing everyone would agree.  But few news organizations have reflected on their coverage--or lack of coverage--of the march.  One of the best and most honest pieces I have read is by Robert G. Kaiser, an associate editor at the Washington Post, who was an intern at the newspaper 50 years ago and helped cover the march.

As Kaiser recounts, the Post published two dozen stories about the march but they all missed the importance of King's speech. The words “I have a dream” appeared in only one story and it appeared on Page A15. Although the Post published brief excerpts from the speeches made given, but the three paragraphs chosen from King’s speech did not include the ringing words, “I have a dream.” In Kaiser's words, “We blew it.”  Kudos to Kaiser for his admission and to the Post for publishing it.

A Linotype machine? Really?

Here's something I would not have to expected to read in 2013: a newspaper is still published using a Linotype machine. The Saguache Crescent in Colorado is thought to be the last newspaper in America still being put out with the technology invented in the 19th century.  Publisher Dean Coombs puts out his four-page weekly with the same Linotype machine his grandparents used

"I'm not much interested in change," Combs said in the story published by the Los Angeles Times.  "If it works we just keep doing it."

Helen Thomas dies at 92

Helen Thomas, the dean of White House reporters who broke down barriers for women in journalism, died today at the age of 92.  For decades, Thomas sat on the front row at presidential press conferences and asked the first or second question.  Her pointed queries often bothered the occupants of the White House, but Thomas just said she was doing her job. "I respect the office of the presidency,” she told Ann McFeatters for a profile in Ms. magazine, “but I never worship at the shrines of our public servants. They owe us the truth.”

There are many outstanding obituaries of Thomas today; one of the best, with a gallery of old photographs, is in the Washington Post.

Technology posing challenges for archives

A story in the New York Times describes how new technology is transforming the work of historians and other researchers using archives.  The technology is improving productivity and helping researcher to be more collaborative.

But, as the story points out, "the transformation has also disrupted many of the world’s historical archives, long known as sleepy places distinguished by vast and often musty collections of documents that only rarely saw the light of day. It has also created new challenges for protecting intellectual property and threatened revenue streams from document copying, creating financial challenges for some institutions."

College repeats as national champions

The College of Communications has captured back-to-back national championships in the William R. Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program.

The college finished first in intercollegiate writing; second in photojournalism; third in broadcasting; and fifth in multimedia. The college captured seven individual top-10 student finishes in writing; three individual top-10 finishes in photojournalism; two individual top-10 finishes in broadcasting; one individual top-10 finish in multimedia; and two groups of students earned top-10 finishes in the multimedia team competition.

Congratulations to all the outstanding students--and faculty--who made this another memorable year for the College of Communications.

Addendum to byline story

Joe Campbell has pointed out that, according to one scholar, some writers put their names on newspaper stories as early as the mid-1830s. In my own reading of newspapers of that era, I have not seen writer's names on stories, but I trust that is the case. So to say that the the byline was "born" during the Civil War is not accurate.

It is worth noting, I believe, that during the Civil War no reporters put their names on stories for various reasons until General Joseph Hooker's order.  The reason for the order--that writers should be held responsible for what they wrote--is what I would argue is significant about the event.

In any case, I apologize for being misleading in my account and want to set the record straight.

Marathon runner now a photo icon

The Washington Post has an interesting story this week about how the runner captured in the Boston bombing photograph has joined the ranks of history's icons. The runner, Bill Iffrig, 78, of Lake Stevens, Wash., is now part of a group that includes the firefighter from Oklahoma City and the young woman at Kent State, among others.

As the story notes, “Historically, the photographs we tend to remember are not the ones that capture the whole of a tragedy — a broad battlefield — but the ones that depict the personal effects of one . .  .” A single image of a single person “can be tremendously evocative and distill the essence of a tragedy,” says Ann Shumard, the curator of photographs for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. “To focus on just one person in the midst of all this swirling chaos — I think that’s probably the first step to coming to terms with what has happened.”

Iffrig did not see the photograph until several days after the bombing. He had seen on the news the widely circulated video of him falling, and he knew that a lot of people wanted to interview him. But he had not seen the photograph until a gate agent at the airport pulled him aside and said, “I have something for you.” Like others captured in tragic events, he doesn't know what to make of his new place in history. But he certainly has a place.

Birth of the byline

Here's my account of the birth of the byline during the Civil War, published in the "Disunion" blog of the New York Times. The blog, which uses contemporary accounts, diaries, and images, is one of the best places to read about various aspects of the Civil War as it unfolded 150 years ago. I'm proud to have contributed two articles to it.

A great visit to the University of Mobile

Thanks to Lonnie Burnett and the good folks at the University of Mobile for their warm hospitality during my visit last week. I gave the university's annual Hinson Lecture and the title of my talk was "Blue and Gray in Black and White: Civil War Journalism." I enjoyed talking to students, faculty and residents, including members of the Civil War Roundtable.

Historic trial newspaper discovered

Few things get historians more excited than discovering new sources. That's what has happened to Davis Houck, a professor at Florida State University and the author of a book about media coverage of the infamous Emmett Till murder. Till was the 14-year-old boy who allegedly whistled at a white woman and was brutally killed.

The trial of the two men accused of the murder drews reporters from the white and black press. Houck has studied the reporting of the trial, but a few years ago found that that another black newspaper, the St. Louis Argus, also had a journalist there.  The problem was that the newspaper's archive was missing.

But recently Houck and his students at FSU discovered the missing issues in a historical archive in Missouri. The discovery is already a treasure trove, with never-before-seen pictures of the NAACP's Medgar Evers, as well as stories written during the trial. "This is just going to be another layer for us to process," he told National Public Radio. "Another layer of what it was like to be black in the Jim Crow South covering this case."

Media Myth blog outstanding

Joe Campbell's "Media Myth Alert" is one of the best blogs about mass media history. Campbell, a professor of journalism at American University, is the author of several books, including Getting it Wrong.  His blog calls attention to media-driven myths.

In a recent post, Campbell revisits what he calls the Washington Post's "thoroughly innacurate" story about U.S. Army Private Jessica Lynch 10 years ago.  In a front-page story, the Post said that Lynch, a supply clerk who never expected to see combat, fought fiercely during an ambush in the first major battle of the Iraq War. As Campbell notes, it was an electrifying report that proved to be "spectacularly wrong" and reverberated widely.

Campbell does not mince words in his blog, one of the things that makes it so valuable. A former reporter, he knows that journalists often do outstanding work, but they also are far from perfect. And as he rightly points out, the same can be said for historians writing about the media.

"On the Road" profiles Penn State's mailman

A couple of years ago, the CBS Evening News brought back the popular feature, "On the Road." The segment, now hosted by Steve Hartman, still covers feel-good stories about people, places and events. Tonight "On the Road" profiled one of my favorite people at Penn State, Mike Herr, better known as "Mike the Mailman." Mike is so beloved because he always has a kind word for customers at the campus post office.

Crusading editor Eugene Patterson dies

Eugene Patterson, an editorial voice of conscience in the South during the Civil Rights era, died yesterday. Patterson was the editor of the Atlanta Constitution from 1960-1968 and wrote powerful columns condemning the violence and miscarriages of justice against blacks.

At the ruins of the 16th Street Baptist where a bomb killed four young girls in 1963, Patterson wrote his most most famous column, “A Flower for the Graves.”  Walter Cronkite was so moved that he asked the editor to read it on the “CBS Evening News.” The column began: “A Negro mother wept in the street Sunday morning in front of a Baptist Church in Birmingham. In her hand she held a shoe, one shoe, from the foot of her dead child. We hold that shoe with her. Every one of us in the white South holds that small shoe in his hand.

Patterson later served as managing editor of the Washington Post and as editor of the St. Petersburg Times. A collection of his columns for The Constitution was published as a book, “The Changing South of Gene Patterson: Journalism and Civil Rights, 1960-1968.”