To succeed in politics, it was impossible to ignore the press and still win the votes during the early political systems in America. It was also impossible to have a government without press or press without government.
Press had no noticeable political role in American politics during Jacksonian times. But politicians came to realize the potential of the press in their campaigns and as a result, the place of the press in politics changed for good. This paper will analyze the role of the press in earlier political systems in America in line with the above-mentioned thesis. It will also argue on the basis of three articles written in reference to press and politics.
In the first half of the 19th century, political communications during campaigns for the presidency and party popularity changed to the use of newspapers. Paper editors played a vital role in ensuring the success of their preferred candidates. On realizing the role of the press in politics, Andrew Jackson, through media strategists controlled the contents of the Jackson newspaper to campaign for General Jackson. It was established that campaigns through a newspaper were more effective than even forming campaign coalitions. Politicians who have been journalists understand the potential of newspapers in campaigns. This is what brought Simpson, a journalist and also a political aspirant, to buying Aurora and renamed it Columbian Observer so that he may exercise power over its contents to support Jacksonians living in Pennsylvania (Baldasty 89). John Eaton from Tennessee was also allowed to publish his essays to praise General Jackson. This shows how the press and politicians can work together in pursuit of a common goal.
Through the use of papers, politicians can attack their opponents by use of propaganda while praising themselves. In the early 19th century, editors were paid directly from friends of politicians or indirectly in form of subsidies by governments for publishing and printing of local, federal, and state laws in their papers. This shows a direct link between the press and politicians who were in the current control of the government. Jacksonians in Philadelphia gave financial assistance to the ‘editor in Phil’ in the form of job printing and later re-prints as per the instructions of John Eaton. In the Pennsylvanian campaigns, General Jackson saw it necessary to involve Columbian Observer and Eaton promised to support Sampson financially in terms of publishing and printing. A conflict between editors and politicians can easily ruin the political potential of a candidate. When the promised financial support is delayed, the editor may lose morale in praising his candidate. This is what happened to Simpson. As a result, their opponents became victors when they also decided to support G. Jackson for the presidency and their candidate Calhoun for the vice presidency, snatching it from Simpson, Tennessee Jacksonians, and Pennsylvanian Old Schoolers. Politicians who are not satisfied with the criticism of editors can try to control newspapers content through threat. This is illustrated when Eaton issues direct orders requiring Simpson to stop the editorial sorties against Calhoun, but Simpson continues and joins hands with editor John Binn of the New Schoolers newspaper (Stewart 596). Simpson’s defiance is a show of how politicians are less respected by editors who do not support them.
The works of an editor can also bring political confusion. The two-party factions are in support of General Jackson but are against one another. The way the editors write threatens to split the party.
According to Baldasty’s article, the rise of Jacksonian and Antimasonic parties was contributed mainly by press editors. Editors either on their own or jointly directed the daily operations of a party. For example, editor Duff Green of US Telegraph and Francis Blair of Washington Globe were key competitors in campaigning for their presidential candidates, but local and small rural county newspaper editors were also crucial to each party. To communicate and mobilize voters, parties needed to use the press to reach their audience. In the late 1820s and early 1830s politics utilized partisan newspapers and editors. The rationale of using the newspapers was because of the editor’s concurrent role as a central committee leader, as a party propagandist, coordinating his party policies, strategies, and propaganda. Political committees either owned the newspapers or wrote to the newspapers or hired the editors. Such an editor needed to be well knowledgeable about party operations, meetings, issues, strategies, and philosophies. The paper assumed the role of a spokesman for all level parties (national, local, and state parties). Traveling agents were used as a way of communication in exploiting the loopholes of political opponents at the grassroots level. National Intelligencer and National Journal supported the Adams administration. This led to the establishment of the Telegraph in 1826 to serve the Jacksons’ campaigns in 1828 (Baldasty 94). Several newspapers emerged to campaign for different presidential candidates. These include the Globe, Globe Extra, Sun, Argus, NY Courier and Enquirer, Republican Advocate, Statesman, Southern Whig, Yates Republican, Boston Patriot, the National Press among others. Parties expanded to support and maintain friendly newspapers. The collapse of a newspaper company was viewed as a symbol of failure to the party that was being supported by the newspaper. During campaigns, editors were eager for printing contracts from parties. This is an indication that the party-editor relationships were based on financial benefits (Stewart 593). Private donations from friends of parties sustained the newspapers because politicians and their friends felt like newspapers were the only means for winning over the electorate (Sloan 102).
David Sloan has the opinion that politics can not prosper well without the press. Whenever Federalists and Republicans differed in opinion, public opinion was sought and the only best means of seeking and presenting the opinion was through the press. Jefferson said the kind of government was based on the people’s opinion and therefore it was impossible to have a government without press or press without a government whereby the latter was impossible. Therefore the power of the press in shaping public political opinion led editors to allocate more space for politics in their newspapers (Sloan 94).
The press played a key role in earlier politics. Almost every party supported a newspaper in return for its political coverage in those papers. To run a government without press services was impossible because no other means could people’s opinions be collected and presented. Therefore press brought positive impacts on these systems.
Works Cited
Baldasty, Gerald. “The Press and Politics in the Age of Jackson,” Journalism Monographs. 1984.
Sloan, William. “Engine is the Press:Public opinion in America’s First Party System.”.Rutenbeck Journ. of Comm. Inquiry. 1994; 18: 87-96.
Stewart, John. “Discipline for a Party Editor:” Journalism Quarterly, 1989, 591-599.