Fake News & Biased Reporting - An American Tradition: Media Reporting, Bias & the Country Divided

Be Reasonable with Mike Gerard

A look at media bias and false reporting and how its roots go back to the very beginning of the country. The journey begins with James Franklin, goes through Samuel Adams and ends up with Washington, Adams and Jefferson. It's how the press was used and the impact that it had.

Sources:

Mansky, Jackie. (2018) The Age-Old Problem of “Fake News” It’s been part of the conversation as far back as the birth of the free press. Smithsonian Magazine.

Adams, John. The Works of John Adams, Vol. 2: Diary, Notes of Debates, Autobiography.

Burns, Eric. (2006) Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism.

ushistory.org. The Electric Ben Franklin.

Massachusets Historical Society. The New England Courant and the Smallpox Innoculation Controversy.

Lepore, Jill. (2007) Party Time. New Yorker Magazine.

Price, Lynn, (2019) “Fake News!”: Newspapers and George Washinton's Second Presidential Administration. Washington Papers.

Jefferson, Thomas. (1793) Notes of Cabinet Meeting on Edmund Charles Genet.

Jefferson, Thomas. (1807) Letter to John Norvell.

Jefferson, Thomas, (1786) Letter to James Currie.