The Pullman Strike

Superior Essays
The Chicago Times and the Chicago Turbine were two principal newspapers in the late 1890’s. Both of the newspapers had coverage of the Pullman Strike available to their readers. The Pullman Strike is an event in Illinois history where workers chose to walk out of their occupations due to the environment. The depression made the worker’s wages get cut by twenty-five percent. This cut was the cause of workers to have an enormous amount of stress, eventually leading to a strike against the corporation. As the public would expect, there was bias present in each of the newspapers. Quite often, newspapers modify their stories, taking one side of an event and wording the story in their favor. Altering stories also changes the reader’s outlook on the …show more content…
The Chicago Tribune’s viewpoints are in favor of labor unions. The newspaper and its writers think that establishing labor unions is crucial to the success of a company. According to their articles, strikes also help keep the workplace fair and under control. While the Chicago Times believes that the employees were doing wrong and affecting the way their company runs, the Chicago Tribune thought otherwise. An article from the Tribune reads, “Its freight service was at a standstill all day and the same is practically true of other roads.” The article continues, “In no case, however, did the strikers prevent the departure of any regular passenger trains from Chicago…” (Brown/Shannon, Source 7) This passage from the newspaper shows that they believe the strike is not doing anything wrong and the strikers are doing the right thing. Also, the sentence in the passage states, “In no case, however…” Using this sentence allows the newspaper to convince their readers that the strikers were doing nothing …show more content…
First of all, a newspaper can write a story however they would like. If a newspaper shows bias, they will most likely publish stories that share or support their viewpoints. For example, if a newspaper considers the fact that the Pullman Strike was all the fault of the company, they may word a story as the company cut wages for workers already working in poor conditions. However, a newspaper blaming the workers may say workers undergo a strike, causing the company to shut down. Nevertheless, each of the newspapers may be correct, but they don't show the other half of the story since it does not support their

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