Many of America's great newspapers have moved away from even the pretense of political neutrality.
Newspapers had previously dealt either with narrow subjects, such as shipping or financial news, or were openly partisan, sometimes even subsidized by a political party.
Respectable newspapers weren't supposed to cover such scandalous material, but Bennett, with an unsurpassed nose for news, knew the story was irresistible, with its illicit sex, bloodshed, violence and wealth.
By the 1850s Bennett's innovations had utterly transformed American journalism.
"The daily newspaper," the North American Review wrote in 1866, "Is one of those things which are rooted in the necessities of modern civilization.... The newspaper is that which connects each individual with the general life of mankind."
The penetration of newspapers into American life made public opinion a powerful force in politics for the first time.
Much of the press's power to influence public opinion came from what was, perhaps, Bennett's greatest journalistic idea of all: He made the Herald politically neutral, printing opinion columns only on the editorial page.
Newspapers had previously dealt either with narrow subjects, such as shipping or financial news, or were openly partisan, sometimes even subsidized by a political party.
Respectable newspapers weren't supposed to cover such scandalous material, but Bennett, with an unsurpassed nose for news, knew the story was irresistible, with its illicit sex, bloodshed, violence and wealth.
By the 1850s Bennett's innovations had utterly transformed American journalism.
"The daily newspaper," the North American Review wrote in 1866, "Is one of those things which are rooted in the necessities of modern civilization.... The newspaper is that which connects each individual with the general life of mankind."
The penetration of newspapers into American life made public opinion a powerful force in politics for the first time.
Much of the press's power to influence public opinion came from what was, perhaps, Bennett's greatest journalistic idea of all: He made the Herald politically neutral, printing opinion columns only on the editorial page.
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