Existing comment:
1773
Extra! Activist Journalism:
On Dec. 16, 1773, patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians protested the tax on British tea by boarding merchant ships and dumping chests into Boston Harbor. The "Boston Tea Party" had, in fact, been planned by Samuel Adams and the proprietors of the Boston Gazette. The editors of the Boston Evening Post contributed by publishing stories that called British tea "a slow poison" that caused "spasms."
Not-So-Speedy News:
When Massachusetts colonists confronted British soldiers at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, it started the Revolutionary War. But news was slow to reach other colonists. New Yorkers did not hear the news until April 23; in Savannah, Ga., not until May 31.
1783 ... First US daily newspaper, Pennsylvania Evening Post, published....
This engraving depicts the signers of the Declaration of Independence leaving Independence Hall in Philadelphia in 1776. |