Francis Foster

So sorry.

Let's say 1890 to 1900.

The muckrakers emerged just after that.

And they do some fabulous reporting on the evil things that happen in meatpacking plants and so on.

A little bit later, by 1920, Walter Lippmann writes a fantastic book called Public Opinion.

And they are criticizing the news as being too slavishly devoted to the audience, right?

To put it in British terms, too much like the Daily Mail and not enough like the New York Times, right?

By the way, much later, the New York Times is founded as a Republican newspaper initially.

Funny how things start out.

So these progressives want to change the news.

The news should not be what the public wants to consume, right?

Because from the public's point of view,

You consume news for entertainment reasons and to help you make decisions.

Who do you vote for?

Where do you send your kids to school?

Is this a safe neighborhood to build a house in, to buy a house in, et cetera, et cetera, to make decisions.

And you don't necessarily expect the media to tell you what your values are.

You want to find those out on your own.

But there are a great number of intellectuals in this time period who want to tell you what your values are.

And they come out of a continental European idea of news.