Chapter 15-"9/11...Failing the American Public"

I chose this chapter because this has been a major impact of terrorism through the U.S. President George W. Bush gave his explanation or a speech and said "I can hear you, the rest of the world can hear you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon". I don't think Bush did a great job giving his explanation of a political strategy. This basically mentions about on how the news media has failed due to a rise to the challenge of giving the public information after the attacks that had an enormous consequences.

Throughout this chapter, "Building a Case for War" talks about on how 'journalism didn't report Osama bin Laden's grievances immediately after 9/11 is documenting the initiative that the news media's failure allowed the White House to undertake"(Streitmatter, 249). I believe that President Bush isn't doing a great job when the media hasn't succeed enough. This whole concept is basically about right after the 9/11 attack. Then, President Bush has decided to have our country going to war. But all of a sudden, Vice President Dick Cheney found out about Saddam Hussein who is the President from Iraq. Then in March 2003, President Bush has decided to send American troops to Iraq to go to war against them because of Hussein developed the weapons of mass destruction.

Chapter 5-Journalism as Warmonger, April 26

This chapter "Journalism as Warmonger" basically talks about the effects on The Spanish-American War. This war was going during the end of the nineteenth century. Two who revolutionized journalism were Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. They published visionaries in particular dominating the era and changed the profession. This war was an effect of the Cuban rebels that seeked to break the Spanish shackles that bound them to colonial status. Hearst and Pulitzer talked about the coverage of the 1898 explosion of the battleship U.S.S Maine that had led to a national hunger for war.

First and foremost, what I find interesting about this chapter was when "William Randolph Hearst Stupefies the World"(Streitmatter,77). This part of the chapter talks about William Randolph Hearst's life. It mentions that "Hearst was an only child of a father named George who is a self-taught mining engineer that has strucked rich in the silver mines of the Comstock Lode"(Streitmatter,77&78). What I found interesting was when William Randolph Hearst was young, he was doing bad things such as drinking a lot of alcohol and spending more time playing with his pet alligator. This shows that he was an indifferent student and he was expelled. He was expelled because he was sending his professors some kind of pots that had the likeness drawn on the bottom. Then, the young Hearst deciding to work as a journalists. First, it came to me that since he is a Californian and he published his first newspaper 'San Francisco Examiner' but all of a sudden this newspaper ad he came up with failed. Finally, what came up to me was some years later, Hearst published a paper called 'Examiner' and it became popular in journalism, as far the business goes.

Then second of all, what I also find interesting about this chapter was "The War of the Newspapers"(Streitmatter,79). This part of the chapter talks about the newspaper competition between Willie Hearst and Pulitzer. They became engaged in the newspaper war in journalism history. What I recall from this part of the chapter was the term 'yellow journalism'. I believe this shows when Hearst published a newspaper called 'New York Journal' and it had a picture of a cartoon character the yellow kid that meant the effect which was a symbol of journalism. This was when he was in New York publishing this journal. But all of a sudden, what came to me was Pulitzer had another artist by drawing the most famous cartoon. This shows how the war of newspapers that got heated up.

Mightier Than the Sword Introduction - Thoughts and Recollections 3/10/11

The main point of this was the introduction that had to do with the premise to the book I just read. The author named Rodger Streitmatter explained the purpose of the work that was written. He explains the ideas of journalism and how it was important that "shaped" through American history. He meant "shaped" when he refers the beliefs of journalism that has influenced in American history. Also, he meant shaping that journalistic coverage can shape an issue and he came up with a public discource, other institutions that can cause real change to occur. He also admits that the context of the individual events that wouldn't be focus, but rather than focus to be upon journalism that had an effect throughout American history.

"Mightier than the Sword" like other books, has build on both of Rodger's professional background in daily journalism and Ph.D. in U.S history in an effort to increase our understanding of both the American media and American culture. This story provides a sense of the history, power, and responsibility inherent in the institution of journalism. The larger audience is the broad one of the men and women who want to learn more about the intertwining of the American news media and American history.

Some historians will criticize the focus on the news media, but it doesn't provide sufficient context. These critics were on solid grounds. It talks about the news media's role in Watergate that could be expanded into 200-page discussion of the various forces that helped expose the men responsible for that shocking episode of political corruption. This is the unique perspective of the "Mightier than the Sword".