Winifred Sweet

 By Chloe Brussard

Known as Winifred "Sweet Black" Bonfils and "Annie Laurie", Winifred Sweet is an American journalist who is a known cultural figure in the late 1800s and early 1900s. 

Sweet was a well respected journalist who even wrote for the "Chicago Tribune" and the "Examiner". Newspapers who included her stories automatically gave them credibility in viewers eyes because that's how popular Sweet was. She would do what no one else was willing to do to get stories. 

She wrote stories about lepers in the Hawaiian Islands of Molokai, polygamy among Mormons in Utah, investigations into the juvenile court system in Chicago, and many more. She was also the first women to report on a prize fight and also the first women to report on the Galveston Hurricane in 1900. 

She wrote mostly about stories in her vicinity but was known by people all over the country. Sweet worked at the "Examiner" all the way up until the last week of her life. She even had a piece published in the week before she died. 

The death of Winifred Sweet was reported nationwide, which is uncommon for female reporters at the time. 

Another thing she was known for was being a "sob sister". A "sob sister" is "a journalist who writes human-interest stories with sentimental pathos." Like mentioned before, she would do whatever she had to in order to get the story, and involving herself like that is why she was able to write with pathos in her work.

Winifred was immediately hired after writing a letter to the Chicago Tribune, which led to her first big job at the San Francisco Examiner where she wrote under the name Annie Laurie.

As Annie Laurie, she staged a public emergency test where she fainted in front of a carriage. Before being brought to the hospital, though, she was prodded by police. Once she reached the hospital, she noted that the people at the hospital were rude to the women, and this whole situation led to the discovery of a major scandal and found a problem with emergency services.

It was incredibly significant that a woman was able to report on foreign affairs and war, like World War I and The Versailles Peace Conference. To get stories like this, she spent a lot of time traveling and having to be undercover. 

Good Night, and Good Luck

 By Chloe Brussard

Released October 7, 2005, "Good Night, and Good Luck" is a film about journalists at CBS radio station in the 1950's, and how they handled the Red Scare through media. There were threats of communism, and conspiracies that they have "infiltrated" the American government. 

Looking at the radio station as a whole, it's different but also similar to the way that things are still done. There is still a lot of talk about politics, and how they are affecting people in everyday life, and still stories being thrown around a table looking for ones that they like the best.

But they also had a live studio band. If they wanted to include music into their radio show, it had to be done live, and didn't have a prerecording of a song where they could just hit play and it'll start. 

Another thing that's different is the ratio of men to women. In this film, the employees consisted of all males, except for the secretaries, who were women. Nowadays, there are many more female reporters who are, in theory, given the same media privileges as the men. 

To signal the on-air personality, one of the producers had to tap their leg. It's such a small detail, manually tapping someone's leg, but in current on-air media, there are big light up signs that can signal them to begin, but they didn't have things like that in the 50's.

Focusing on the journalists, and their dilemma, they were worried about producing content that criticized the government because they were afraid of the backlash that they would receive from them. Some reporters want to publish that kind of content while others do not. 

This radio show reported the facts, as unbiased as possible, which they did mention in the show. Criticizing the government could make them look like communist sympathizers, so the content they produced had to be very specific and not include anything that could come back and hurt them in the future. 

The reporters in this film are putting their careers on the line by reporting about the Red Scare. They believed so strongly in what they're producing that they are willing to do that, to give the public information that they deserve to know. 

The CBS reporters talked about the "hard politics", which included the Red Scare. They did what other stations were scared to do. There was a huge possibility that their reports could get their station shut down. The higher-ups in the station were trying to convince the on-air reporter to stop reporting on the communists, because even they were getting nervous about their station being shut down.

If they were going to continue reporting on the communists, though, it was made clear that anyone who had any sort of communist ties had to be let go, but the one man who did have a connection, albeit very far, wasn't let go because the reporters believed in standing their ground.

Other journalists were both commending and criticizing the reporters at CBS who spoke out about Joseph McCarthy, coming at them both as a whole station, but also others specifically. They were targeting other reporters who agreed with him.

Once reporting on the communists became a serious thing, Senators began going after then "newsmen". The people of the government started throwing around their titles as a way to show their superiority, but all the reporters are doing is exposing their actions to the public in the bluntest way possible. 

The actions done by the CBS reporters began to lose them sponsors, because companies couldn't afford to be associated with communist sympathizing stations. 

I think that what the people at CBS did was extremely brave. They risked their career, and the careers of others to report the truth, and that's all you can do, really. Sometimes, reporting the truth is much harder than reporting what people want to hear. 

Even today, the government and media still clash over stories because they have become so intertwined with each other. Not everyone is going to agree with everything, so receiving backlash is expected as journalists. 

One thing though, that has unfortunately continued is false reporting. Some reporters are reporting what people want to hear, and they are reporting only certain things in stead of the whole story. In order to have a well-rounded story, you must have all the facts. 

You can't pick and choose what information you want to show the people, because the public has a right to know what is going on in their government and how it could possibly affect their lives. 

Mary Margaret McBride

 By Chloe Brussard

Known as "The First Lady of Radio", Mary Margaret McBride helped pioneer radio talk shows during the 30's. 

She was born on November 16th, 1899 in Paris, Missouri and died on April 7th, 1976. At the age of six, McBride became a student at a preparatory school called William Woods College, and then at age 16 attended the University of Missouri where she received a degree in journalism in 1919. One organization she was apart of was also the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

Out of college, she worked for a year as a reporter at the Cleveland Press before working at the New York Evening Mail until 1924. Following her departure from the NYEM, McBride wrote freelance periodicals including the Sunday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, and Good Housekeeping.

McBride worked steadily in radio for WOR in New York City, starting in 1934. She had a radio show in which she created a new persona, "Martha Deane", which aired daily until 1940. "Martha Deane" had a whole backstory, as if she was actually a real person, which quickly fell apart. 

"Deane" mentioned at the beginning of the show she had grandchildren, but in future shows forgot their names. Thus, "Martha Deane" became McBride's new persona, but excluded the elaborate backstory. 

She was an American radio interview host whose radio shows spanned more than 40 years. In the 1940's, the daily audience for her housewife-oriented talk show program numbered from 6-8 million listeners. 

In 1983, McBride launched on the CBS Radio Network the first of a series of similar and successful shows, but as Mary Margaret McBride. 

She could no longer use the "Martha Deane" name because it was owned by WOR, so her move to CBS did not include her persona. 

McBride interviewed people who were very well known in the world of art, entertainment, and politics. Not only did she interview people, but she also advertised different products on her show. But, she would only sponsor products that she had a positive personal experience with, and refused to promote all tabacco or alcohol related products. 

McBride's broadcasting journey ranged from many different radio stations. She stayed with CBS until 1941, and then moved to NBC, where her audience numbered in the millions, until 1950. After NBC, she moved to the ABC network until 1954 before going back to NBC until 1960. Finally, she became a broadcaster for The New York Herald Tribunes radio broadcasts. 

Unfortunately, after a long battle with an illness, Mary Margaret McBride died at her home in West Shaken,  New York on April 7th, 1976. Her career was an inspiration for talk radio and television talk show personalities we know today like Phil Donahue and Oprah Winfrey. 

McBride received much recognition after her death, like "It's One O'Clock and Here Is Mary McBride: A Radio Biography" being published by Susan Ware in early 2005. A new character was made out of McBride -- "Mary McGoon". She was featured in many comedy routines of Bob and Ray. 

Her name was also put on the classic CBS-TV sitcom, "I Love Lucy", in episode 76, "The Million Dollar Idea". In 1949, her 15th anniversary celebration was held at Yankee Stadium in New York, which held 75,000 people.

McBride's magazine show was on the air continuously for around 25 years, and it even aired after her death in '76.

Mary Margaret McBride was not only a pioneer in talk show radio, but also a pioneer for women in the journalism community. Her shows reached millions of people across the country regularly, from all different kinds of networks. McBride was a person who people followed from station to station, listening to her where ever she was broadcasting from.