From Heard to Hale: Trial by Media in 1937 and Today

As the 1937 film, They Won't Forget, opened with shots of the Lincoln Memorial and a quote from Robert E. Lee, I wasn't really what the movie was even going to be about. I was even more confused as I saw these old men in what looked to be military uniforms marching. 

The pieces began to fall into place as it is established that it is the Memorial Day celebration and the film begins to introduce the main characters like the newcomer young teacher Mr. Hale, the beautifully innocent pupil Mary Clay, and the district attorney Andy Griffin. 

Although it was an older movie, I was entertained by the plot the entire time. I can honestly say I did not see the story taking a turn when the young girl, Mary Clay, is found murdered in the school building, turning the small southern town on its head.

And so begins the witch hunt for the perpetrator who killed the poor teen. The finger is first pointed at the African American janitor, which is somewhat now cliche due to the time period the movie takes place. The blame is then transferred to the victim's boyfriend, Joseph Turner, but the boy has an alibi as he wasn’t allowed in the school where the murder took place because it was closed. 

The district attorney then lands on the dreamy professor from the north, Robert Hale with the help of one of the reporters, William Brock. We begin to see the repercussions of a trial by media and the negative way this film chose to portray journalists and the press in general. 

After Hale is locked up for further questioning due to the orders of the district attorney, the press barges their way into Hale's home, where they find a frazzled and distraught Mrs. Hale. 

The reporters begin to bombard the woman with questions about her husband and his past. One of them even goes as far as to steal one of the photos kept in their home. The journalists are the ones to break the news to her that her husband is in jail. She faints and instead of seeing if she is alright, they take photographs of her knocked out. 

There is one female reporter in the group who seems to have Hale’s best interest in mind. She tries to relate to the upset woman once she has regained conscientiousness, but in reality, she is just trying to get the dirt on their relationship. She assures Mrs. Hale that the reporters won’t run any of the personal information shared with them, but the next day, it’s all over the front page of the newspapers. 

Almost one hundred years ago, journalists were already portrayed in a negative light, and to be fair that negativity is somewhat deserved. Journalists and reporters today will do whatever it takes to get the story. While it is their job it seems that all ethical ways of obtaining information have been thrown out the window. Unfortunately, trial by media hasn’t changed that much since the film was released. 

The recently famous trial that was completely overtaken by the media was Depp v. Heard featuring the star-studded former couple Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. The case became somewhat controversial as the trial was streamed and used for audience entertainment but it was discussing the serious topics of domestic abuse and defamation. This case weighed heavily on my mind while watching the film as it was sad to see how both the press and the media distort trials involving serious topics such as murder or abuse for views, subscribers, or money. 

The Actress to Journalist Pipeline: Why I Chose Journalism

 

As a little girl, there was only one place I wanted to be when I grew up: Broadway

I did it all. I took voice lessons, dance lessons, and acting boot camps. There was nothing that made me happier than live theater (there still isn’t). I performed every chance I got from nursing homes to talent shows; all I wanted to do was tell stories through songs and acting. 

Once I got a little older, I faced a harsh reality, the theater world is cutthroat and I probably didn’t have the skills to make it. Being good in New Bern, North Carolina is a whole different ball game than being good in New York City. I didn’t have the look, I didn’t have the credentials, and I didn’t have the confidence. 

All throughout high school I still considered pursuing acting professionally, it wasn’t until my senior year that I considered journalism at all. 

“You’re a writer,” said my high school English teacher, “and a good one.”

I had written some short stories and a couple poems in my free time, but I had never considered it as a career path. However, my parents were thrilled to know I was somewhat interested in pursuing a field other than acting. 

I started to look into what journalists even do. I was able to take part in a journalism summer intensive where I learned that multiple of the guest speakers had some sort of theatrical background because actors and journalists have one very important thing in common: storytelling.

I have always known I wanted to be a storyteller, I just thought I would be telling stories on stage rather than on paper.

I came to college as a shy journalism major that barely knew what the word meant. I wasn’t even sure if journalists wrote about anything other than politics.

I have found many other journalism majors also interested in theatre with backstories similar to mine. Many do not realize the commonalities between the two. While I am now a proud journalism major, I am also a musical theater minor. I am able to keep that passion alive throughout my time here at High Point and use it as I explore the possibilities of arts and entertainment journalism. 

Minus a few mid-semester breakdowns where I considered completely changing fields, I am beginning to become equipped with the tools needed to become a twenty-first-century journalist through this class and many others required for the major. I am slowly but surely finding my voice.

A Brief History of Journalism Institutions: What I Learned from EOTO 1

In past classes, I have always loved learning from my classmates when we do presentations. For this first EOTO, I was really impressed by how effectively each group presented the information on their topic and how organized their visuals were. 

One of the first pairs presented on Frederick Douglass and his paper The North Star. This presentation tied into my own topic so I was interested in hearing more in-depth about Frederick Douglass as I researched him only a small amount. I enjoyed getting to see both sides of the story concerning Douglass and Garrison and their papers’ attributes, similarities, and differences.

Not only did I learn about historic institutions and how Americans got their news hundreds of years ago, I learned a lot of backstory to a publication that is present in my day-to-day life here in 2023.

I personally spend a lot of time reading articles from the New York Times and it is the source I get a majority of my news so I was really interested in hearing the history behind the publication. I honestly didn't know it was such an old and historic publication, nor did I know anything about the two men that started it and how it came to grow into the publication it is today. 

Henry Raymond and George Jones wanted to create a neutral news outlet and truly inform the people of America. Their legacy lives on as millions of people now subscribe to the outlet they created so many years ago. 

My perspective as a journalist was then expanded as I was taught about the power of pictures rather than always thinking about the power of words.

I had never really given much thought to cartooning or the political cartoons/comics that are in newspapers. I had never realized their significance, so I found this presentation enlightening and entertaining. I have seen Ben Franklin’s “Join, or Die” illustration for years but did not even realize that it was considered the first political cartoon and how the industry just flourished from there on out. 

This project not only expanded my views but even brought them close to home as a group of my classmates presented on a society that we have a chapter of right here at High Point University. 

I am not a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, but I learned a lot about it during this first EOTO presentation. I definitely want to look into joining now. I had never really known what they do as a society, but thanks to these presentations I have not only learned about their mission, I know about the history of the founding students’ dedication and passion to form the group. I really loved how the group also made a point to focus a bit of their presentation on the role of women in the society and when they were able to join as women’s rights is a topic very close to my heart. 

A Man Before His Time: The History of William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator

Born in 1805 the son of a merchant sailor, William Lloyd Garrison came from humble beginnings as his family began to struggle for money when he was young due to the Embargo Act of 1807. He was forced to take up many apprenticeships as he grew older to provide for his family after his father left them. Garrison began work for The Newburyport Herald as a writer and editor in 1818, giving him the experience he needed to start his own paper.

Originally a supporter of colonization, as Garrison grew older he changed his views. At the age of 25, Garrison joined the abolition movement. He worked as the co-editor of an anti-slavery newspaper called The Genius of Universal Emancipation started by Benjamin Lundy. He went on to publish the first issue of his own newspaper on January 1st, 1831: The Liberator.

The Liberator is considered to be the most well-known and widely spread anti-slavery newspaper of the antebellum period and the Civil War.

Garrison published the paper in Boston, Massachusetts, where he voiced his opinion honestly and forcefully. He was criticized for his opinion pieces and even imprisoned for a short amount of time over what he wrote. No matter what he would not be silenced.

Garrison was even tied up and dragged through the town with the threat of being lynched and a reward of $4000 was placed on beheading him solely because of his views. His intense abolitionist arguments quickly gathered support and hate.

Garrison’s main goal was to shift the beliefs of those involved in purchasing and owning slaves.

His first issue of the paper included his own personal statement as follows: “I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. . . . I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD.”

The Liberator would not have been as successful as it was if it had not been for the free African Americans who subscribed, making up over seventy-five percent of the paper’s readers. Garrison’s condemnation of the Constitution was incredibly controversial as he was decades ahead of most other northern white abolitionists due to the fact that he constantly demanded the immediate emancipation of all enslaved people and restoring the natural rights of all slaves.

In 1854, Garrison publicly burned a copy of the United States Constitution due to the belief that it promoted slavery. Garrison was actually the one to discover the young and newly escaped Frederick Douglass in 1841 and encouraged him to speak about his experiences.

The two parted ways and the friendship did not end amicably as Douglass began to change his views concerning the Constitution and Garrison's message.

The Liberator officially ended its run in 1865 with 1,820 issues when the Civil War ended. At the end of the paper’s run, Garrison stated, “my vocation as an abolitionist is ended.” 

William Lloyd Garrison lived long enough to see Abraham Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War, and thirty-four years after the first issue of The Liberator, Garrison was able to experience the Thirteenth Amendment banning slavery. He then turned his attention to women’s suffrage, pacifism, and condemning the post-Reconstruction actions of southern states against African Americans.