{"id":145971,"date":"2026-06-18T07:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T11:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=145971"},"modified":"2026-06-19T07:33:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T11:33:26","slug":"ct-martin-olasky-empires-of-ink-and-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=145971","title":{"rendered":"(CT) Martin Olasky–Empires of Ink and Blood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two centuries ago, most American magazine and newspaper editors professed Christian faith<\/a> and wanted their publications to show it\u2014but many lost their audiences when new publications<\/a> offered street-level reporting that won more readers than literary essays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s important history to understand, but you won\u2019t read about it in Alex Wright\u2019s new book Empire of Ink<\/a><\/em>, a supposed history of American journalism through 1900. Wright amusingly describes antics of The Printers, Rogues, and Radicals Who Invented the American Newspaper<\/em>, as the subtitle states, but he skips the Christians and in doing so misses the forest for trees, billions of which fell in the centuries when words on paper ruled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But just as Wright overlooks something important, so did I\u2014until my research for a history of abortion led me to what Wright rightly calls \u201cracy papers \u2026 bearing names like The Flash<\/em>, The Whip<\/em>, The Rake<\/em>, <\/em>and The Libertine<\/em>,\u201d bearing \u201cheadings like Lives of the Nymphs.\u201d They published detailed and prurient profiles of prostitutes, listing their addresses as a service to readers eager (as one critic wrote) to \u201cfill the paths to perdition.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wright also describes how newspapers first celebrated Charles Dickens when the author came to the US in 1842, then called him \u201ca literary bagman.\u201d Dickens reciprocated, attacking \u201cmoral poison\u201d and arguing that \u201cthe influence of the good, is powerless to counteract the moral poison of the bad.\u201d My sense is that Wright overemphasizes the bad in early American journalism, but I may have underestimated it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>

(CT) Marvin Olasky–'[Alex] Wright amusingly describes antics of The Printers, Rogues, and Radicals Who Invented the American Newspaper, as the subtitle states, but he skips the Christians and in doing so misses the forest for trees, billions of which fell in the centuries when\u2026<\/p>— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) June 19, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>