Annotated Bibliography (b)

Pasley, Jeffrey L. “The Newspaper-Based Political System of the Nineteenth-Century United States”. “The Tyranny of Printers”: Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2001. 1-23. Print.

            Pasley explores the “merger” between the media and politics.  With journalists beginning as politicians, personal news stories are left out at the local level with “only the largest urban dailies…” reporting on personal, local stories.  The journalist’s power shifts as they “exercise control” in the 19^th century as the center of politics.  Sprung from “technological necessity” and the cultural need, politicians are unable to “campaign” independently.  Newspapers follow candidates to their events and mold public opinion on their political policy.  Word spreads by diverse American geography.  Jefferson-Hamilton debates spark increase in the partisan press and formation of the first political parties.  The Liberator, an anti-slavery newspaper created in 1831 by William Lloyd Garrison, springs from specialty interests.  The specialty papers are results from America’s uneven development in politics.  As the antebellum period ushers in new political parties, New York’s Tammany Hall dominates as one of the only political organizations to campaign constantly and independently.  Newspapers fill the gaps for others.  Newspaper editors become the most prominent politicians.  Thurlow Weed becomes a Whig and Republican editorial leader, using “political communication”.  The “newspaper politics” from the late 1760’s-1830’s define the editor’s role in the democratization of partisanship in America.