JOURNALISTS AS SOCIAL CRITICS
During the 19th century more and more newspapers and magazines began to campaign for social and political reforms as a method of attracting mass audiences. William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, while often engaging in sensationalism, also spoke out against social evils of their day. Some of the mass magazines of the time, such as McClure's Magazine and Everybody's, built their reputations largely on the exposure of abuses. Newspaper and magazine editorials exerted some influence, but even more important was the ability of news stories to focus public attention on social problems or political corruption. Crusading journalists, the so-called muckrakers, helped to bring about a number of reforms—for example, antitrust legislation (see Trusts) and the passage of pure food laws (see Pure Food and Drug Acts).
Journalists have continued to serve as watchdogs for the public. In the 1960s television brought civil rights demonstrations in the United States—and the brutal means sometimes used to control them—into people’s living rooms. Reporters covering the Vietnam War (1959-1975), having become convinced that officials were not telling the truth about U.S. involvement there, were instrumental in turning public opinion against the war.
In 1972 and 1973, led by investigative reporters from the Washington Post, the press exposed links between the administration of President Richard M. Nixon and a burglary of the Democratic Party national headquarters (known as the Watergate scandal, so-named for the building that housed the burglarized office). Senate hearings on the scandal and preparations by the House of Representatives for impeachment proceedings were carried live on television and attracted large audiences. President Nixon resigned soon thereafter. Some investigative reporters then turned their attention to alleged abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), charging, for instance, that these agencies had spied illegally on American citizens.
Except during World Wars I and II, freedom of the American press was not seriously abridged in the 20th century. Governmental efforts to prevent publication of the Pentagon Papers (a collection of secret documents on the Vietnam War) were struck down by the courts in 1971 as a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Broadcasting stations, which must be licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate, have generally been more cautious in their criticisms of government than have newspapers.