Sin Wages, a Study of Journalism

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The Brass Check

The Brass Check , in the German translation Sündenlohn, a study of journalism , is a critical report on US journalism by Upton Sinclair from 1919. The German translation appeared in 1921. The type of investigation is assigned to the so-called muckraking .

The title creates an analogy between journalism and prostitution: a brass check was the token that a customer bought in a brothel and given to the woman of his choice. Sinclair suggests that mass media owners similarly buy journalists 'services to support the owners' political and financial interests.

Sinclair focuses primarily on newspapers and the Associated Press telegraphic news service, as well as a few magazines. Other critical accounts of the press had appeared earlier, but Sinclair reached a wider audience with his personal fame and lively, provocative writing style. Among the media moguls criticized was William Randolph Hearst , who was known for the rainbow press style in his media outlets.

Sinclair described The Brass Check as "the most important and dangerous book I have ever written". The University of Illinois Press published a new edition of the book in 2003 that includes a foreword by Robert W. McChesney and Ben Scott. The text is also freely available on the Internet, as Sinclair decided not to protect the text by copyright in an effort to reach the largest possible readership.

Upton Sinclair

For much of Sinclair's career, he was known as a "two-book writer" for The Jungle and The Brass Check . Sinclair organized ten prints of The Brass Check in ten years and sold more than 150,000 copies.

overview

The book belongs to the "Dead Hand" series: six books that Sinclair wrote about American institutions. The series also includes The Profits of Religion, The Goose-step (higher education), The Goslings (elementary and secondary education), Mammonart (literature, art and music) and Money Writes! (Literature). The term "dead hand" criticizes Adam Smith's concept that the best outcome for society as a whole is if an "invisible hand" of capitalist greed is allowed to shape economic relations.

Summary

The Brass Check consists of three sections: documented cases in which newspapers refused to reveal the societal causes of conflict, Sinclair's investigations into corruption, cases in which he was not personally involved, and suggestions for remedial action. Sinclair draws on the opinions and reactions of others to his portrayal in order to reinforce objectivity.

Sinclair criticizes newspapers as supporters of political and economic interests and institutions or as tabloids that practice "yellow journalism", such as the newspapers of William Randolph Hearst. In either case, their purpose is to promote the business interests of the newspaper's owners, the owner's bankers, and / or the newspaper's advertisers. This is achieved in a number of ways, including: Publishers tell editors what can and cannot be printed. Journalists routinely make up stories. To stimulate circulation, newspapers turn trivial stories into sensational news and destroy the lives and reputation of those affected in the process. Errors and slander are never withdrawn, or months later the withdrawal is published hidden in the newspaper and thus "buried".

The editors and journalists of the Associated Press (AP) telegraph service do not serve the public interest in the same way as the newspaper staff. The AP is controlled by 41 major newspaper companies and acts on their behalf.

Sinclair quotes from a letter from the editor of the weekly San Francisco Star , James H. Barry:

You want to hear my "confidential opinion on the Associated Press honesty". My non-confidential opinion is that she's the damned, meanest monopoly on earth - the wet nurse to all other monopolies. She lies by day, she lies by night, and she lies for the sheer pleasure of lying. Your message collectors, I sincerely believe, are only obeying orders.

Contemporary events whose media coverage he analyzes include the 1912 Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strike in West Virginia, the 1914 Ludlow massacre in Colorado, the meetings of the Industrial Workers of the World, and the newspaper-whipped Red Scare . A tireless investigative reporter, Sinclair offered the results of his investigations to newspapers for publication but was almost completely ignored.

The propaganda tactics practiced by the US government and corporations during World War I continued after the war against political dissenters. Sinclair writes: "[Today] all energies that were directed against the emperor are directed against the radicals".

Suggested solutions

Sinclair realized that when the mass media spread misinformation or ignored the truth, popular response (mass gatherings, demonstrations, handing out leaflets, etc.) could not be effective. His main suggestions for remedial action were:

  • a law that requires any newspaper that prints a false statement to give a correction equal weight, with the penalty of a substantial fine.
  • The monopoly of the AP, which he viewed as a "public utility company", was to be broken by other intelligence services.
  • a law that forbids any newspaper from inventing and spreading fake news
  • Reporters need to unionize so they have the power to set their pay scale and code of ethics.
  • a weekly chronicle of the news, with no ads or editorials, cheaply printed and widely available.

reception

The first code of ethics for journalists was created in 1923.

By 1923 the FBI had a report on The Brass Check on file, and a memorandum on the file stated that the Associated Press executive "has a confidential report on the book, The Brass Check, in his possession".

Sinclair urged those who accused him of inaccuracy to review his factual statement and sue him for defamation if they found he was wrong. Nobody did this. However, since Sinclair was denied access to the mass media to refute these allegations, the critical opinions took on the aura of truth and gave the book a reputation for imprecision that was almost forgotten by the middle of the century.

Press observers found The Brass Check's analysis of the media to be accurate and valuable. He is "Muckraking at its finest" and "astonishingly forward-looking in his criticism of the confidentiality of the major media and other corporate interests".

When the book was published, however, "many newspapers refused to review the book, and the few that did were almost always disapproving. Many newspapers, such as the New York Times, even refused to run paid ads for the book." ". And "the historians who go to the trouble of mentioning The Brass Check dismiss it as ephemeral and declare that the problems it describes have been solved".

Quote

Journalism is one of the means by which an economic autocracy controls democracy; it is the everyday propaganda between elections that keeps the consciousness of the citizens in a state of tacit approval….

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sumpter, Randall S. "The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism." Journalism History . 29: 2 (Summer 2003), p. 95.
  2. ^ McChesney, Robert W. and Scott, Ben. "Upton Sinclair and the contradictions of capitalist journalism." Monthly Review 54.1 (May 2002), pp. 1-14.
  3. ↑ Nalbach, Alex. "" Poisoned at the Source "Telegraphic News Services and Big Business in the Nineteenth Century." Business History Review , 77: 4 (Winter 2003), pp. 577-611. (Available through JSTOR) Corroborates Sinclair's claim that the corporate control of the AP shaped the news it reported.
  4. ↑ You wish to know my "confidential opinion as to the honesty of the Associated Press." My opinion, not confidential, is that it is the damndest, meanest monopoly on the face of the earth - the wet nurse for all other monopolies. It lies by day, it lies by night, and it lies for the very lust of lying. Its news-gatherers, I sincerely believe, only obey orders.
  5. ^ The Brass Check , Chapter 59, p. 381.
  6. ↑ Fengler, Susanne. "Holding the news media accountable: A study of media reporters and media critics in the United States." Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 80: 4 (Winter 2003), pp. 818-832.
  7. ↑ Folsom, Franklin. "Notes on Writergate." Monthly Review 47: 1 (May 1995), 25. Excerpted from Days of Anger, Days of Hope: A Memoir of the League of American Writers, 1937-1942.
  8. ^ McChesney, Robert W. and Scott, Ben. "Upton Sinclair and the contradictions of capitalist journalism." Monthly Review 54.1 (May 2002), 1-14.
  9. ↑ Hicks, Granville. "The Survival of Upton Sinclair". College English 4: 4 (Jan 1943), pp. 213-220.
  10. ↑ Klein, Julia M. "Sinclair Redux." Columbia Journalism Review . 45: 2 (Jul / Aug 2006), 58-61.
  11. ↑ a b McChesney, Robert W. and Scott, Ben. "Upton Sinclair and the contradictions of capitalist journalism." Monthly Review 54.1 (May 2002), 1-14.
  12. ^ Upton Sinclair: The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism . Open Road Media, 2015, ISBN 978-1-5040-2611-6 ( com.ph [accessed April 10, 2020]).

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