8. The New York Times changed the political orientation of newspapers
Despite most newspapers claiming to be nonpartisan in their coverage of current events during the antebellum period, most remained oriented with the political party espoused by their owners. Both news coverage and editorial content reflected their political views. In September 1851, Henry Raymond, a journalist who had worked for Greeley’s Tribune, used money borrowed from friends to start a new newspaper which he named The New York Daily Times. Raymond’s vision was for a newspaper which supported political positions on its editorial pages but presented hard news in an apolitical manner. He established a network of correspondents in Europe, providing Americans with news of European affairs in a manner heretofore unknown in the United States. For Raymond and the Times, public affairs were the center of the news desk, allowing the readers to make their own judgments regarding their views.
The editorial pages, which presented opposing viewpoints as well as those of the editorship of the Times, became a major influence in New York politics and business practices. The Times used a format which significantly toned down the strident language favored by most newspapers of the day. Florid prose vanished before a matter-of-fact style, both in its headlines and its editorials. “There are few things in this world which it is worthwhile to get angry about…” Raymond said of his paper’s style. Abusive and polemic editorials, so common in a period when the President of the United States was referred to in print as a baboon, were not allowed in the Times. By 1870 the Times, which dropped Daily from its name in 1857, had grown so powerful that it could successfully take on the political corruption of Tammany Hall and William “Boss” Tweed.