Infamous Scribblers by Eric Burns (2006)
The title for this outstanding literary contribution to the history of American journalism, Infamous Scribblers, is taken from correspondence of President
George Washington to his fellow Virginian Henry Lee.
He had suffered the "arrows of malevolence" from the journalistic bombardments against him, primarily from the rancorous enmity of his opposers in the republican press. He told Lee of how tired he was, "tired to his marrow" of being buffited in the public prints by a set of infamous scribblers."(256)
While reading this wonderfully enlightening excursion into this colonial world of American journalism, one is reminded of the now infamous dust-up between then Vice-President George H.W. Bush and
CBS news anchor Dan Rather, when Bush was seeking the Presidency in l988.
That live, on-camera altercation between a major candidate and future President and a major network journalist now seems tame and lame after a
perusal of this 467 page tome analyzing the "rowdy beginnings" of
print journalism which included a pantheon of propagandists, pamphleteers,
publishers and partisan profiteers.
In fact, while all of us think of our calling or profession in terms of the quest for truth, the author, Eric Burns, also the host of Fox News Channel's
"Fox News Watch", in this elucidating text, quotes Thomas Fleet, publisher of the Boston Evening-Post, whom Burns described as a man "who brought as much conscience as he could to the job," revealed the real purpose of print, printers and printing, when he was criticized by an anti-Methodist for printing a sermon by John Wesley. Fleet justified his publication of the founder of Methodism's sermon in his newspaper because of "the Prospect of getting a Penny by it, as I have by all that I print." (51)
The twin freedoms of speech and religion were inextricably intertwined in the nascent stages of our democracy in the l8th century. In fact, our lively experiment in self-government, according to at least one international observer,
owes its origins in no small way to the pulpit and the press.
A private secretary to a British Admiral during the revolutionary war
wrote, "Among other Engines, which have raised the present Commotion next to the harangues of the Preachers, none has had a more extensive or stronger Influence than the Newspapers of the respective Colonies." (220)
Such elucidating quotes derive from the author's immersion in the primary sources of the era. Burns gets it right with his fair and balanced approach.
This book immediately becomes an indispensable consult for the journalist,
historian, political and religious leader of our own time who seeks a fully-informed historical backdrop for contemporary media.
With the understanding that the bottomline of journalism, both then and now,
is to sell product, whether in the form of newsprint, magazines, books, or the manifold media of our time, this reviewer recommnends this book as a good buy.Read full review
