"Before there was an Internet, Izzy Stone was doing the work we associate with today's best bloggers." (Common Dreams, Jeff Cohen)
For this week's blog post, I'm going to attempt to do something that may amuse some and confuse others. I'm going to blog about how Izzy Stone's work could be categorized as blog-like before blogging was even concepted. I guess it's not THAT amusing, but I just thought I'd acknowledge the fact that I'm blogging about how a man that preceded blogging could be compared to some of the most prolific bloggers in journalism. I don't want this post to turn into some long paragraph, where I just Izzy Stone for all of accomplishments and influence on the journalism industry, but I would like to show my appreciation for such a relentless reporter. The Internet is an invaluable tool for journalists not only because it enables them to always be up-to-date on current events, but more importantly because how effective of a research device it can be. Whether it was his consumption of several newspapers daily or the incessant skimming through a number of Congressional Records, Izzy Stone's devotion to uncovering news for the public was unmatched. Especially considering that he didn't have a tool like the Internet, to make his research a bit more bearable. I understand that I'm not a developed journalist, but it is hard to imagine that I'll devote that much time everyday to reading that many newspapers cover to cover. Bloggers are dedicated to uncovering controversial stories, but it is doubtful that they spend as much time as Izzy did analyzing documents. Another aspect that puts Izzy stone in a league of his own was how he would begin articles not blog posts, with quotes like "The American government and the American press have kept the full truth about the Tonkin Bay incidents from the American public." He was not afraid to challenge the government and I know there are tons of bloggers nowadays, who challenge the government left and right, but it reflects one's courage more when they do it through print. Something Izzy shares with current bloggers is how he was a writer, editor and boss, so he governed himself like many bloggers do. He did not have to answer to an advertisers request. Almost every word that he wrote was determined by him and didn't have some worried editor complaining about his work being too controversial. This aspect makes him quite similar to the many bloggers today because obviously bloggers only communicate ideas that they are passionate in.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
Voices of Revolution, Chapter 1
"The importance the Working Man's Advocate placed on universal education was clear from the motto it carried each week at the top of page one: 'All children are entitled to equal education, ' and from the item it positioned as number one on its list of measures that working men sought: 'Equal Universal Education.' " (Page 12)
George H Evans, the publisher and editor of Working Man's Advocate, was passionate in reforming the education system for children, among other things. While he was a radical reformer, he and William Heighton, who was quoted in his Mechanic's Free Press saying that something he was primarily focused on was "securing education for every working-class child," (Page 12), Evans could not accept a system that directed benefitted one class - the bourgeois, which was in the minority in terms of their size. With that in mind, in one of my art history classes I was learning about how after the fall of the Roman Empire, it brought rise to the dreadful system known as feudalism. Cities in Italy including Siena, Lucca, San Gimignano had citizens, who grew tired of having the feudal lords ruling their towns and mistreating the lower classes. Additionally, the feudal system gave birth to a new class, known as the merchant middle class, which was full of many people with enough capitol and wits to eliminate the feudal system. And instead of that system, they created a self-governing system, where members of the middle class and some lower class individuals would live autonomously without having feudal lords interfering and making ridiculous laws that only benefit themselves and the rest of the bourgeois. Although this system would have a lot of trouble thriving in 19th century America, I found it interesting that if you go back six or seven centuries systems of government were in the case of San Gimignano and the other Italian cities, much more reasonable to those inhabiting them. The concept of equal education for the child working class would likely be more of a non-issue because the merchants, who were part of the governing board, would not have as much reluctancy or see it as problematic to permit working class children to education. If only things could have been that easy for the American working-class children in the 19th century.
George H Evans, the publisher and editor of Working Man's Advocate, was passionate in reforming the education system for children, among other things. While he was a radical reformer, he and William Heighton, who was quoted in his Mechanic's Free Press saying that something he was primarily focused on was "securing education for every working-class child," (Page 12), Evans could not accept a system that directed benefitted one class - the bourgeois, which was in the minority in terms of their size. With that in mind, in one of my art history classes I was learning about how after the fall of the Roman Empire, it brought rise to the dreadful system known as feudalism. Cities in Italy including Siena, Lucca, San Gimignano had citizens, who grew tired of having the feudal lords ruling their towns and mistreating the lower classes. Additionally, the feudal system gave birth to a new class, known as the merchant middle class, which was full of many people with enough capitol and wits to eliminate the feudal system. And instead of that system, they created a self-governing system, where members of the middle class and some lower class individuals would live autonomously without having feudal lords interfering and making ridiculous laws that only benefit themselves and the rest of the bourgeois. Although this system would have a lot of trouble thriving in 19th century America, I found it interesting that if you go back six or seven centuries systems of government were in the case of San Gimignano and the other Italian cities, much more reasonable to those inhabiting them. The concept of equal education for the child working class would likely be more of a non-issue because the merchants, who were part of the governing board, would not have as much reluctancy or see it as problematic to permit working class children to education. If only things could have been that easy for the American working-class children in the 19th century.
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