EOTO #2: Terms and Concepts:The Political Column

 EOTO #2 The Political Column

The first earliest political column emerged with the first known connection to Thomas Paine. Thomas Paine laid the foundational groundwork for political columns and political commentary. However, the political columns and political commentary of the 30s and 40s was the major birth of an enterprise. The most common man in the world of political columns is Walter Lippmann and Will Rogers. 

The political column emerged during the party press era when politics came to the forefront of the news. The political column and commentary can be attributed to Thomas Paine’ “Common Sense”. “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine was the first introduction to political commentary. Thomas Paine and “Common Sense” was the open avenue of political columns and one hundred fifty five years later it led to Walter Lippmann’s creation of his political column “Today and Tomorrow”. 

Walter Lippman was an American newspaper commentator, an author who made a sixty year career in the world of political columns. 
He was influenced by philosophers, and he studied at Harvard. A little bit more about Walter Lippman is that his column, “Today and Tomorrow” launched in nineteen thirty one. The column was known to hundreds of newspapers, and it ran for decades. The political column “Today and Tomorrow” was written beginning in the year nineteen thirty one and lasting up until nineteen sixty seven. The column was run for thirty six years. 

The column focused on issues of importance in the penny press era that were a set of issues surrounding coverage into crime, local issues, natural disasters,  human interest stories, the arts, society pages, and gossip. The specific aspect of news that I want to address is the political column. The political column had two big major contributors in the world of news that I want to focus on. The first contributor I want to address is Walter Lippmann. Walter Lippmann was born in New York City in eighteen eighty nine. His news career consisted of working for the New York Tribune, The New York World, The New Republic, and Newsweek to name a few. 

 The second biggest contributor to what became known as the political column was Will Rogers. Will Rogers was born in eighteen seventy nine in Oklahoma. Will Rogers was a performer, actor, and comedian. Will Rogers contribution to the world of political columns was centered around a social commentary about politics and news. He wrote daily telegrams about politics and gave a funny commentary to such serious matters. 

He was focused on expressing his dissatisfaction to politics as a whole, and showing that neither party was really the best. Will Rogers exhibited a happy go lucky personality. In summation, the political column was influenced by many people, but the two men I chose to focus on specifically were important contributors to the news and political column in the terms of their different approaches that were used in the world of news. Will Rogers and Walter Lippman equally approached their news differently, but both were equally important and necessary.