Mass Communication Living in a Media

World 6th Edition Hanson Solutions

Manual
Go to download the full and correct content document:
https://testbankfan.com/product/mass-communication-living-in-a-media-world-6th-editi
on-hanson-solutions-manual/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Mass Communication Living in a Media World 6th Edition

Hanson Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/mass-communication-living-in-a-
media-world-6th-edition-hanson-test-bank/

Mass Communication Living in a Media World 7th Edition

Hanson Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/mass-communication-living-in-a-
media-world-7th-edition-hanson-test-bank/

Media of Mass Communication Canadian 6th Edition Vivian

Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/media-of-mass-communication-
canadian-6th-edition-vivian-test-bank/

Media and Culture Mass Communication in a Digital Age

10th Edition Campbell Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/media-and-culture-mass-
communication-in-a-digital-age-10th-edition-campbell-test-bank/
Media and Culture Mass Communication in a Digital Age
9th Edition Campbell Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/media-and-culture-mass-
communication-in-a-digital-age-9th-edition-campbell-test-bank/

Dynamics of Mass Communication Media in Transition 12th

Edition Dominick Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/dynamics-of-mass-communication-
media-in-transition-12th-edition-dominick-test-bank/

Media and Culture 2016 Update Mass Communication in a

Digital Age 10th Edition Campbell Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/media-and-culture-2016-update-
mass-communication-in-a-digital-age-10th-edition-campbell-test-
bank/

Media and Culture An Introduction to Mass Communication

11th Edition Campbell Solutions Manual

https://testbankfan.com/product/media-and-culture-an-
introduction-to-mass-communication-11th-edition-campbell-
solutions-manual/

Introduction to Mass Communication Media Literacy and

Culture 9th Edition Baran Test Bank

https://testbankfan.com/product/introduction-to-mass-
communication-media-literacy-and-culture-9th-edition-baran-test-
bank/
Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
Lecture Builders

Chapter 6
Lecture Builders

JEFF BEZOS BUYING THE WASHINGTON POST

I went into more detail on this in the fifth edition. Here’s the story of Bezos buying the
Washington Post:
The news started breaking on Twitter on the afternoon of August 6, 2013, that there was a big
meeting scheduled at the Washington Post. Not long after, word came that Amazon founder and space
memorabilia collector Jeff Bezos had purchased the paper for $250 million from the Graham family, who
had run the paper for four generations. Although Bezos founded and is the largest stockholder in book
sales and media giant Amazon.com, he bought the paper out of his own personal fortune (and with a
fortune estimated at $26 billion, the Post cost less than 1% of his net worth). When Bezos does things,
he doesn’t do them in a small way. As an example, not long before buying the Washington Post, he
funded and led an expedition to recover two of the massive F-1 Saturn V moon rocket engines from the
bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. 1
The fact that this is a personal purchase is important. Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi
pointed out at the time of the purchase that under Bezos the paper will be privately owned, so he will
not be accountable to shareholders or other investors. He’ll be allowed to take a long-term approach,
something he has a track record of doing. Although the Post reported being profitable at the time of the
sale, it has been suffering a steady decline in revenue over the past several years and has had declining
print circulation as well. 2
At a time when the common wisdom says that newspapers are a dying medium from the last
century, why would one of the wealthiest men in the world purchase a paper that has had declining
revenue for six years? Bezos told the Post’s Farhi that he does not see any magic answer to the
problems metropolitan newspapers are facing:

The Post is famous for its investigative journalism. . .. It pours energy and investment and
sweat and dollars into uncovering important stories. And then a bunch of websites
summarize that [work] in about four minutes and readers can access that news for free.
One question is, how do you make a living in that kind of environment? If you can’t, it’s
difficult to put the right resources behind it. 3

1
Robert Z. Pearlman, “Jeff Bezos’ Salvaged Apollo Rocket Engines Reach Shore After Ocean Recovery,”
Space.com, March 22, 2013, www.space.com/20358-bezos-apollo-rocket-engines-shore.html.
2
Paul Farhi, “Washington Post to Be Sold to Jeff Bezos, the Founder of Amazon,” Washington Post, August 5,
2013, www.washingtonpost.com/national/washington-post-to-be-sold-to-jeff-bezos/2013/08/05/ca537c9e-fe0c-
11e2-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html.
3
Paul Farhi, “Jeffery Bezos, Washington Post’s Next Owner, Aims for a New ‘Golden Era’ at the Newspaper,”
Washington Post, September 3, 2013, www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/jeffrey-bezos-washington-posts-
Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
Lecture Builders

When the Graham family decided to sell the Washington Post, they were looking for an investor
who could pay the $250 million asking price and not demand an immediate return on the investment.
And that’s when CEO Don Graham thought about his friend Bezos. Despite dealing with cutting-edge
technology, Bezos has a reputation for taking the long-range view of business. 4 Back in 2011 in an
interview with longtime tech journalist Steven Levy, Bezos talked about the fact that his companies have
always taken a long view. Bezos says:

Our first shareholder letter, in 1997, was entitled, “It’s all about the long term.” If
everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing
against a lot of people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re
now competing against a fraction of those people because very few people are willing to
do that. Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavors that you could
never otherwise pursue. 5

One of Bezos’s first innovations after buying the paper was providing subscribers to other
metropolitan papers, including the Dallas Morning News, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, and the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, unlimited free access to the Post’s website and mobile apps. Normally, people
who want to view more than a limited number of articles at the Post have to pay a monthly subscription
fee (your author among them). The goal of Bezos’s plan is to bring people in to the site who are outside
of the paper’s print circulation area and who are unlikely to be good candidates for becoming paying
customers, but who still have a documented interest in news. Bezos might also look at bundling access
to the Post with other online subscription services, such as Amazon Prime or Spotify. 6 In another action,
the Post actually has been hiring people, adding 50 new staffers during the first half of 2014. This is in
sharp contrast to the years of buyouts of senior employees that had cut the size of the newsroom over
previous years. 7
Although Bezos has said he hasn’t figured out how to make a major metropolitan paper into a
growing, profitable media outlet, he does know that the paper’s readers have to be at the company’s

next-owner-aims-for-a-new-golden-era-at-the-newspaper/2013/09/02/30c00b60-13f6-11e3-b182-
1b3bb2eb474c_story.html.
4
Craig Timberg and Jia Lynn Yang, “The Sale of The Washington Post: How the Unthinkable Choice Became the
Clear Path,” Washington Post, August 6, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/the-sale-
of-the-washington-post-how-the-unthinkable-choice-became-the-clear-path/2013/08/06/46216532-fed7-11e2-
9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html.
5
Steven Levy, “Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think,” Wired, November 13, 2011,
http://www.wired.com/2011/11/ff_bezos/all/1.
6
Victor Luckerson, “Jeff Bezos Makes His First Major Move at the Washington Post,” Time, March 19, 2014,
time.com/30243/jeff-bezos-makes-his-first-major-move-at-the-washington-post/.
7
Michael Calderone, “Washington Post Has Hired 50 Staffers in 2014 Amid Bezos-Funded Expansion,” Huffington
Post, May 12, 2014, www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/12/washington-post-bezos-50-staffers_n_5310221.html.
Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
Lecture Builders

core. “I’m skeptical of any mission that has advertisers at its centerpiece. Whatever the mission is, it has
news at its heart.” 8

HOW PHOTOGRAPHERS AT THE FLINT JOURNAL COVERED THE FLINT WATER CRISIS

Local media, such as the Flint Journal newspaper, played a key role in getting out the story of the
Flint water crisis caused by lead leaching out of pipes in the Michigan city. Here’s the story of how
photographers at the Journal, who had been drinking the water, covered the story. Much like the
journalists in New Orleans who covered Hurricane Katrina, reporters and photographers in Flint took the
story personally.

http://time.com/4187382/water-crisis-flint-michigan-photography/

How Student Media Stayed Online When News Broke Around Them:

When the story broke on Thursday, December 8, 2011, about a shooting that left two dead on
the Virginia Tech campus, two things happened: People started remembering the horror of the 2007
shooting on the same campus that left 33 dead, and folks nationwide started turning to the website for
the Collegiate Times, the school’s student newspaper, for up-to-the-minute news about what was
happening on campus.
However, due to the sudden surge of readership, both the Collegiate Times and the Virginia
Tech websites were unable to handle the load and went down. But the quick thinking students at
Collegiate Times rapidly got a minimalist photo blog up and running. They later redirected their
website’s URL to the paper’s Twitter feed. This was similar to what major news organizations had to do
on September 11, 2001 in order to keep their websites running as everyone in the country was trying to
come to terms with the United States under attack. Not long after Collegiate Times got its site up and
running, the official Virginia Tech page also came back up in minimalist form.
While the Collegiate Times reporters and editors have justifiably been praised for their work
covering the shooting, one of the real journalistic heroes of the day was online director Jamie Chung.
Poynter.org reports that Chung used the computer in his dorm room to keep photos and news flowing
to the paper’s website while it was up. When the site crashed under the sudden influx of traffic, Chung
did a redirect first to a breaking news section, then to a WordPress site, and finally to the paper’s
Twitter feed.
Chung told Poynter:

It was very important to us to make sure we could still reach our audience. . ..
The biggest challenge was knowing there was a problem that you know needs to be
fixed but feeling like it’s completely out of your control. We said, “We might be down,

8
Farhi, “Jeffery Bezos, Washington Post’s Next Owner, Aims for a New ‘Golden Era’ at the Newspaper.”
Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
Lecture Builders

but we still need some credible channel for our audience to access the news.”9

As the student newspaper website wasonly minimally functional, the reporters working at the
paper began using Twitter to push reliable news out to readers. The paper’s Twitter account,
@collegiatetimes, had fewer than 2,000 followers that morning, but it had more than 20,800 followers
by 3:18 p.m. Central Time that afternoon.10 The university itself also made extensive use of its Twitter
account in the absence of a usable website.
By 4 p.m., police in Blacksburg, Virginia, were reporting that there was no longer an “active
threat” on the campus, and it was becoming clear that this shooting, as tragic as it was, would not be as
extensive as the massacre of 2007.11
The lesson from Virginia Tech is pretty clear: Communications professionals in both the news
and public relations arenas must have an alternative plan in place for dealing with an overloaded Web
server, and they should have a social media communication strategy in place to communicate under
normal circumstances, and in times of emergency.
There can be no doubt that student journalists at Virginia Tech’s Collegiate Times offered the
best coverage in the country of the 2011 shooting deaths, and they received praise from both the New
York Times and the Los Angeles Times.12 Although local television station WDBJ served the national
audience by live streaming its coverage, no one came close to the student newspaper’s excellent job of
covering the story as it broke using Twitter and other social media. The Collegiate Times also produced a
skillful special edition of the paper that was available both in print and online.
All this is not to say that the coverage by the Collegiate Times was perfect. Any time you try to
cover a breaking story in real time, you are going to make mistakes—sometimes big ones. At one point,
the paper’s staff posted a photo that was actually from the 2007 mass shooting on campus. But to their
credit, the staff not only took the photo down as soon as they realized their mistake, they also publicly
acknowledged the error and ran a correction through Twitter.13
Aside from providing good local coverage, the students also showed a savvy understanding of
what could be done with social media. As the Media Decoder blog at the New York Times pointed out,
the paper made good use of crowdsourcing news about the shootings, publishing reports it received

9
Mallary Jean Tenore, “Collegiate Times Publishes Special Edition After Virginia Tech Campus Shooting,”
December 9, 2011, http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/155483/collegiate-times-online-director-it-was-
very-important-to-make-sure-we-could-still-reach-our-audience/.
10
Deborah Netburn and Rene Lynch, “Virginia Tech Shootings: Student Paper Covers It from the Inside,” Los
Angeles Times, December 8, 2011, latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/12/virginia-tech-shooting.html.
11
Virginia Tech News Twitter Account @vtnews, December 8, 2011,
twitter.com/#!/vtnews/status/144891337798463488.
12
Netburn and Lynch, “Virginia Tech Shootings: Student Paper Covers It from the Inside”; Jennifer Preston and
Brian Stelter, “Using Twitter, Virginia Tech’s College Newspaper Kept on Publishing,” New York Times,
December 8, 2011, mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/using-twitter-virginia-techs-college-
newspaper-kept-on-publishing/.
13
Netburn and Lynch, “Virginia Tech Shootings: Student Paper Covers It from the Inside.”
Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
Lecture Builders

from students and others around campus. The reporters also did a commendable job of making clear
what they knew for sure and what was news they were uncertain about.14
Professional newspapers could learn a lot from how student journalists have handled fast-
breaking news using social media in tandem with their websites and print editions. Student journalists at
Penn State’s Daily Collegian provided comprehensive coverage of how the campus responded on the
night legendary football coach Joe Paterno was fired for his handling of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse
scandal; and West Virginia University’s Daily Athenaeum had video stories up on YouTube covering
student reaction to President Barack Obama’s announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed.

DEATH OF WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTER DANNY PEARL

Covering the news, especially from a war zone, can be a dangerous occupation.
“The deaths in Iraq reflect the utter deterioration in reporters’ traditional status as neutral
observers in wartime,” said Committee to Protect Journalists executive director Joel Simon. “When this
conflict began..., most journalists died in combat-related incidents. Now, insurgents routinely target
journalists.” 15 This continues a trend that started with the murder of popular Wall Street Journal
reporter Daniel Pearl back in 2002. A videotape discovered on February 25, 2002, showed Pearl being
stabbed to death and then decapitated. Pearl had been kidnapped in Pakistan on January 23 while
attempting to reach a radical Islamic cleric for an interview. 16 The story he was chasing, however, was
apparently a trap designed by a group calling itself the National Movement for the Restoration of
Pakistani Sovereignty. 17 Four men were eventually captured and convicted in Pakistani courts for his
kidnapping and murder. Pearl and his wife, Mariane, a freelance broadcast journalist, had arrived in
Pakistan shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks. He was covering the country as part of his job as
the Journal’s South Asia bureau chief.
Mariane Pearl says that her husband’s kidnapping was not a typical one, where the goal is
ransom or exchange. “My feeling is that the killing of Danny was more of a declaration of war.” 18 Why
Pearl was murdered is not clear. His widow speculates that it could have been for a story he had written
or something he was working on. He may have simply been seen as a symbol of the West.
In 2013, at least 70journalists were killed around the world in a direct connection to their work,
according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Of those deaths, 28 came from reporters covering
the civil war in Syria. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that deteriorating security conditions
have “made it virtually impossible for foreign journalists to work in Syria.” Among the dozens of
journalists who have been kidnapped, there was NBC’s chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and
his crew. The journalists were captured by a Syrian militia group while traveling with a group of Syrian
rebels. Although Engel and his team were not physically harmed, they were subject to repeated mock
executions. The news team was finally freed when the militia members holding them got into a firefight

14
Preston and Stelter, “Using Twitter, Virginia Tech’s College Newspaper Kept on Publishing.”
15
Committee to Protect Journalists, “In Iraq, Journalist Deaths Spike to Record in 2006,” December 20, 2006,
cpj.org/reports/2006/12/killed-06.php.
16
Patricia Ward Biederman, “Services to Mark Death of Reporter,” Los Angeles Times, February 19, 2003.
17
Nancy Gibbs, “Death in the Shadow War,” Time, March 4, 2002.
18
Jim Lehrer, “Mariane Pearl,” in NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS, 2002).
Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
Lecture Builders

at a rebel checkpoint. Iraq was the number two country for journalism fatalities in 2013 with ten, Egypt
with six, Pakistan with five, and Somalia with four. 19
Terry Anderson, an Associated Press reporter who was kidnapped in Lebanon in 1985 and held
hostage for seven years, asks, “Why would anyone undertake this kind of work?” He finds the answer
within Pearl’s life. At the time of his kidnapping, Pearl was determined to try to understand why a man
would pack his shoes with explosives before boarding an airplane. Anderson says that correspondents
like Pearl put themselves at risk because they believe in reporting the truth.
They believe it is better for you to know that such things happen than not to know. They believe
it is better for you to see the faces of the victims, almost always innocent children and women, and to
hear their voices than to let them die ignored and unrecognized. They believe that if they can just make
you pay attention, your horror and anger and outrage will match theirs, and you will demand that such
things stop. And sometimes, they are right. 20

JANET COOKE AND THE WASHINGTON POST

Watergate was no doubt a high point for the Washington Post, but the Janet Cooke story was
likely one of its lowest. Cooke was hired by the Post to improve its coverage of the African-American
community. She was a young African-American woman who claimed to have a degree from Vassar, and
she was a fantastic writer. On Sunday, September 28, 1980, Cooke delivered just the kind of story she
had been hired to write—a compelling account of an 8-year-old boy named Jimmy who was a heroin
addict being shot up by his mother’s boyfriend. Although the story was compelling, it wasn’t true—
something that was not discovered until the story was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1981. Days after
Cooke won the award, reporters learned that her college credentials had been fabricated, and soon she
confessed that Jimmy’s story had been made up as well. 21
Cooke obviously had not behaved ethically in fabricating the story and her credentials. But Bob
Woodward, who was one of Cooke’s editors, also accepted responsibility for printing the story.
Woodward explained the journalistic and moral lapse in an interview with Washingtonian magazine:

When we found [the story] was a fraud, we exposed it ourselves, putting all
the information, very painfully, in the paper. We acknowledged a lapse of journalism.

It took me a while to understand the moral lapse, which was the more
unforgivable one. I should have tried to save the kid and then do the story.... If it

19
Maya Taal, “CPJ Risk List: Where Press Freedom Suffered,” Committee to Protect Journalists, 2014,
cpj.org/2014/02/attacks-on-the-press-cpj-risk-list-1.php; “70 Journalists Killed in 2013/Motive Confirmed,”
Committee to Protect Journalists, 2014, cpj.org/killed/2013/; Mike Brunker, “Richard Engel and NBC News
Team Freed from Captors in Syria,” NBC News, December 18, 2014,
worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/18/15985279-richard-engel-and-nbc-news-team-freed-from-captors-in-
syria?lite.
20
Terry Anderson, “He Took a Risk in Pursuit of the Truth,” Los Angeles Times, February 24, 2002.
21
Ibid.
Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
Lecture Builders

happened now, I’d say, “Okay, where’s this kid who’s being tortured to death?”
My journalistic failure was immense, but the moral failure was worse. And if I
had worried about the kid, I would have learned that the story was a fraud. There
would have been no journalistic failure. 22
Fourteen years after Cooke’s story was written, retired Post editor Ben Bradlee was still haunted
by the story and by the blow it delivered to the paper’s credibility: “That was a terrible blot on our
reputation. I’d give anything to wipe that one off.” 23

NOTES: CRIME NEWS AND ETHICS―EDNA BUCHANAN: Covering crime also brings about some of the
toughest ethical calls in the newspaper business. What does a reporter do when she knows she has a
story, and the police say she shouldn’t print it? Pulitzer Prize winning former Miami Herald reporter
Edna Buchanan believes the answer is easy: Run the story. She writes that accurate, detailed reporting
can help solve “unsolvable” crimes. Buchanan uses as an example a serial rapist who had been attacking
women in Miami for more than two years. During this entire time, the police kept the investigation
quiet. Through the course of her reporting Buchanan learned a lot about the so-called “Bird Road
Rapist,” who would flash his headlights at women driving by themselves at night on Bird Road. The
women would stop their cars and then be assaulted by the man.

Buchanan, in her 1987 book The Corpse Had a Familiar Face, had this to say about the case:

“I heard about the rapist and began gathering information for a story. The cops were furious. Their
lieutenant even called my editor, insisting we keep it out of the paper. Their reasoning was the usual: If
the rapist is tipped off that police are looking for him; they will never be able to catch him.”

So what’s a reporter to do? Whom should she serve? Should she help the police or report the story?
Buchanan, as she usually did, came down on the side of printing the story because that’s the journalist’s
job. The Miami Herald ran Buchanan’s story about the rapist on a Sunday, and by the end of the week
the rapist was in jail.

“Half a dozen new victims called police after reading the story,” Buchanan writes. Embarrassed,
ashamed, or afraid, they had never reported their encounters with the rapist. Each thought she was the
only victim, until she read the newspaper. Among them were women with more accurate descriptions of
the man and the cars he drove. One had even seen him in a gas station sometime after the rape. Based
on the new information, detectives were able to identify and arrest him.

“He was sentenced to multiple life terms.”

This is an old example, but I’ve never seen the situation explained better.

22
Ken Adelman, “You Can’t Have Secrets,” Washingtonian, August 1994.
23
Alicia C. Shepard, “Ben Bradlee,” American Journalism Review, March 1995.
Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
Lecture Builders

Hurricane Katrina
Reporters generally work under the ideal that they are supposed to be detached, objective
observers of the news, no matter what happens. But when Hurricane Katrina unleashed the flooding of
New Orleans in August 2005, the staff of the Times-Picayune could not and would not hold back their
feelings.
On Monday, August 29, after the storm hit, James O’Byrne, features editor for the Times-
Picayune, was covering Katrina with Doug MacCash, the paper’s art critic. Unlike the national reporters
located in the higher areas of the city who were saying that New Orleans had “dodged a bullet,” the two
were on their bicycles on a railroad bridge looking over Lake Pontchartrain. They could see what the
others could not—that a huge flood of water was heading into the city not from the sea, but from the
lake.
O’Byrne said everyone at the paper knew things would be bad when the meteorologist they
used as a source asked, “How far above sea level is the third floor of your building?”24
On Tuesday morning, the 80 or so staff members who had stayed behind were forced to
evacuate, riding in the back of newspaper delivery trucks. The paper initially planned to publish a blog
when possible, but the staff couldn’t stand the thought of not covering such a big story in their own
hometown. Sports editor David Meeks made the suggestion to management: “Give me a delivery truck
and a small group of writers. We’ll go back.”25
The staff never stopped publishing online, and by Thursday they were printing a paper edition
again. The challenges facing them were enormous. There were questions of how to eat, where to stay,
how to submit stories. The paper set up new headquarters in Baton Rouge, about an hour away. The
head of IT had to charge $22,000 worth of software and computers on his corporate card with the hope
that he would somehow get reimbursed.26
Photographer Ted Jackson didn’t quite follow instructions when the order to evacuate came.
While on his way to the circulation trucks, the photographer saw an abandoned flatboat at the Times-
Picayune’s back steps with a broken broom to use as a paddle. So, Jackson said, with “two cameras, my
cell phone, my laptop and a small backpack of food and water, I shoved off and paddled away over
coworkers’ flooded cars.”27
Jackson quickly saw that he was going to be personally involved with the story whether he
wanted to be or not. “I suddenly realized the moral and ethical dilemma I was facing. Everyone stranded
by the flood would want my small boat and would do anything to take it. . .. Would I let people drown
when I had the only boat in sight?” He decided he would rescue people in the water, but not those who
were on land or in a house.
The first person he rescued was a fellow Times-Picayune photographer who held a plastic bag
full of photo data cards in his teeth.
After hours of rowing around and taking pictures, Jackson collapsed for a while and then started

24
James O’Byrne, “Katrina: The Power of the Press Against the Wrath of Nature,” Poynter Institute, September 1,
2006, www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=106352.
25
Brian Thevenot, “Apocalypse in New Orleans,” American Journalism Review, October/November 2005, 24–31.
26
O’Byrne, “Katrina: The Power of the Press Against the Wrath of Nature.”
27
Ted Jackson, “Ted Jackson: Our Lives, Ours to Cover,” Poynter Institute, September 1, 2006,
www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=106673.
Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
Lecture Builders

hitchhiking rides in Blackhawk helicopters to get out and take more pictures. There was no way Jackson
could stay detached following his odyssey. He writes, “I’ve covered tragedies all over the world, but it’s
different when it’s your own town. Cataclysmic annihilation is starting to feel normal. This story is ours
to cover, but it’s more than that. This is now our life.”28
O’Byrne says, as all the reporters at the paper do, that this was their story, a part of their lives.
(Even for reporters, or perhaps especially for them, Truth One is vital—The media are essential
components of our lives.) “We are narrator and subject of the story of New Orleans, a quandary that,
pre-Katrina, we were usually able to avoid.” He notes that more than one-third of his department’s staff
lost their homes from Katrina. “They, like dozens of Times-Picayune employees, understand the stress,
the despair, the frustration and the struggle that is life in New Orleans still today.”29
The fact that they could not remain detached did not excuse the reporters from their
responsibility to be accurate observers, something that was difficult in all the confusion of the storm and
flood. Reporter Brian Thevenot said that some stories were reported as fact with only partial support.
The story of a single mentally ill man shooting at a single rescue helicopter got turned into snipers at the
Superdome shooting at the rescue helicopters. And widespread stories about the rape of children, again
at the Superdome, were undocumented, though some rapes certainly could have occurred.30 Thevenot
and the staff of the Times-Picayune took the accuracy responsibility seriously enough to run their
corrections as a major front-page story about a month after the storm.31
The key issue to Thevenot is that the Times-Picayune (and other news organizations) went back
after the storm and made a real effort to find out how much of the atrocity stories was true and what
was myth. As Keith Woods, of the journalistic think tank the Poynter Institute, told Thevenot, “Don’t
forget, the journalists kept reporting—the reason you know that things were reported badly is because
the journalists told you.”32
In 2006, the Times-Picayune shared the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for public service, along with the
Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi, Sun-Herald, and received a second prize for breaking news reporting. What
explains the Pulitzers and the great reporting? Features editor James O’Byrne says it was the paper’s
local staff that made the difference. “As veterans of the hometown paper, our team’s knowledge of the
city, their ability to go everywhere and to understand the scope, impact, and context of what was
happening, was why the Times-Picayune owned this story. It was but one of the many moments that
defined what it means to be a newspaper.”33

NOTE: Since this was originally written, The Times-Picayune has cut back to publishing three times a
week. You can read more about that here: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-
57562200/outcry-after-nolas-daily-paper-cuts-back/

28
Ibid.
29
O’Byrne, “Katrina: The Power of the Press Against the Wrath of Nature.”
30
Bob Garfield, “Second Chance at a First Impression,” NPR, December 9, 2005,
www.onthemedia.org/yore/transcripts/transcripts_120905_first.html.
31
Brian Thevenot, “Myth-Making in New Orleans,” American Journalism Review, December/January 2006, 30–37.
32
Ibid.
33
O’Byrne, “Katrina: The Power of the Press Against the Wrath of Nature.”
Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
Lecture Builders

REMEMBERING CHRIS HONDROS AND TIM HETHERINGTON

Five years after they were killed making photos in Libya, journalists Chris Hondros and Tim
Hetherington are remembered by their colleagues and friends. A bit of insight into the dangerous world
of war photographers: http://time.com/4298368/what-we-learned-from-chris-hondros-and-tim-
hetherington/

SOLDIERS WITHOUT SWORDS

http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/index.html

Learn more about African-American journalists and newspapers at the Soldiers Without Swords
website designed to accompany the PBS documentary of the same name.

NOTES: This site has material on several major black papers, including the Defender, Baltimore’s Afro-
American, and the Pittsburgh-Courier. There are also biographies of African-American journalists
discussed in this chapter.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 "You are nothing more than a traitor!" cried Collot; "it is our indictment
you are drawing up there, I suppose?"

"Yes, traitor! threefold traitor!" exclaimed Elie Lacoste. "Traitor and

perjurer, you form with Robespierre and Couthon a triumvirate of calumny,
falsehood, and betrayal."

Saint-Just, without losing self-possession a moment, stopped in his

writing, and coldly offered to read them his speech.

Barère disdainfully refused to listen.

"We fear neither you nor your accomplices! You are but a child,
Couthon a miserable cripple, and as to Robespierre..."

At this moment an usher brought in a letter to Barère. He looked uneasy

after he had read it, and signed to his colleagues to follow, leaving Saint-
Just free to continue his work. In the lobby Barère told them it was a letter
from Lecointre announcing the approaching attack upon the Committee by
the troops of the Commune, and offering the battalion of his section for
their defence.

"It is exactly as I told you!" cried Elie Lacoste. "The leaders of the
Commune must be instantly arrested, and with them Robespierre and his
two accomplices!"

"Commencing with Saint-Just and his speech," said Collot.

"Robespierre was here just now," observed Billaud-Varennes, who had

followed his colleagues out of the room; "he wanted to know what we had
done with the prisoner from La Force. We told him we had not to render
account to him, whereupon he went away in a rage, crying out, 'You want
war? War you shall have then!' We have been warned by the Incorruptible
himself, you see!"

"Yes, but we shall crush him through his Englishman! We have

witnesses enough now!"
 "Nay, unhappily we have not!" replied Billaud.

"What! we have no witnesses?" exclaimed Barère in surprise. "What do

you mean? ... Has not Coulongeon...?"

"Coulongeon arrived too late at La Bourbe Lebas had just taken them
off, by Robespierre's orders—no one knows whither."

"Oh! the villain! he suspected something, then, and abducted them to

suppress their evidence; but we have at any rate the young man from La
Force."

"He is upstairs, but he knows nothing."

"He lies, he is a traitor!"

"No, he seemed quite sincere, and he execrates Robespierre; but I shall

question him again to-morrow."

"And meanwhile we must resort to stratagem," remarked Barère.

They discussed and debated the question, and all came to the conclusion
that Barère was right. Their safety lay in stratagem. After all, there was no
immediate peril. Robespierre was not fond of violent measures, he would
not break the bounds of the law unless driven to it. It was out of sheer
vexation that he had thrown that challenge in Billaud-Varennes' face; and
after all, since Saint-Just had again assured them of the Incorruptible's pure
intentions, it would be perhaps prudent to dissemble and to disarm the
triumvirate by simulating confidence.

On the whole the members of the Committee were undecided, hesitating

between two alternatives, one as dangerous as the other. Either they must
openly attack Robespierre and overthrow him, and thus add to the already
unbounded power of the Committee, which would then more easily crush
the Convention; or they must leave the power in Robespierre's hands, who,
when once master, would lose no time in annihilating them.
 The members returned to the Committee-room where Saint-Just was
still writing. They spoke as if they had altered their mind on thinking things
over. They regretted their hasty words, for after all the patriotism of
Robespierre and his friends had stood a long test. They spoke of precautions
to be taken in case of an unexpected attack, for warnings had reached them
from every quarter. All this was discussed aloud before Saint-Just,
ostensibly to show their complete confidence in him.

Saint-Just, to all appearance the dupe of their hypocrisy, assured them

they were unnecessarily alarmed. If the Jacobins and the Commune had
formed any projects against the Committee, he would have heard of it.
There was certainly considerable excitement in the streets among the people
whose anger had been aroused at the calumnies to which Robespierre had
been subject. But the Incorruptible would soon calm them down. As far as
he, Saint-Just, was concerned, he was ready to forget the somewhat hasty
words which one of his colleagues had addressed to him in the heat of the
moment.

Collot d'Herbois upon a sign from Barère feigned to regret his hasty
speech, which was, of course, he said, the outcome of excitement. It was so
easy in these times of anger and enmity to be carried away by the fever of
the moment. The dissensions of the Committee were making them the
laughing-stock of their enemies.

Saint-Just, cold and impassive as before, quietly assented, and

meanwhile continued to draft his speech, and when he had finished put it in
his pocket, and looked up at the clock. It was five in morning.

"At ten, the speech will be copied, and I shall read it to you before the
sitting, so that there may be no unpleasantness," said Saint-Just, rising to
go.

Taking his hat and stick, he moved off, the others, to all appearance
reassured, pretending to do likewise; but Saint-Just had no sooner
disappeared than they returned to the Committee-room. It was agreed to
send for the three leaders suspected of assisting Robespierre in the
insurrection: Hauriot, the Commander of the troops; Payan, the Commune
agent; and Fleuriot-Lescot, Mayor of Paris. The ushers returned with the
two last named, but Hauriot was not to be found. For the space of four
hours they retained Payan and Fleuriot-Lescot, smoking, drinking, eating,
talking, and discussing, in the sultry and oppressive heat which heralded the
near approach of a storm. They thus held them in check for the time being,
overwhelming them meanwhile with questions, to which they replied in
terms that tended to calm the anxiety of the Committee.

During this time the Parisian populace, who had not slept either, had
entered the Convention, the assembly-hall of which, situated also in the
palace of the Tuileries, within ear-shot of the Committee, had been filling
since five o'clock that morning, though the sitting was not to commence
until noon.

Every moment messengers arrived at the Committee-room, ushers out

of breath bringing news, messages, and reports in an endless succession,
which increased as the hours advanced. Payan and Fleuriot-Lescot had just
left, after completely reassuring the Committee. It was now half-past ten,
and the sitting was opened. Saint-Just did not put in an appearance, but the
thump of crutches was heard in the corridor, announcing the arrival of
Couthon, the cripple.

"Where is Saint-Just?"

"He is coming!"

For one hour Couthon kept the Committee in suspense, entertaining

them with Saint-Just's favourite theme, Robespierre's single-minded
patriotism, but still no Saint-Just appeared. The Committee began to feel
annoyed, and soon Carnot, who suspected treachery, spoke out boldly. It
was nothing less, he said, than a preconcerted plan between Couthon, Saint-
Just, and Robespierre.

Couthon protested.

"You do wrong to speak ill of the patriot Robespierre! You are basely
calumniating a friend of your childhood!"
 "If I am base, you are a traitor!" retorted Carnot, beside himself with
rage.

But Couthon, anticipating a storm, took up his crutches and stumped

off, protesting as he went. Sinister sounds now reached the Committee.
They had been betrayed! Saint-Just was going to denounce them from the
tribune! The document he had been drafting before them, there on that
table, was nothing more or less than the indictment of the Committee!
Barère had just received trustworthy information to that effect. Robespierre
had drawn up a list of eighteen names of those destined for the scaffold. A
deputy entered and asked for Billaud-Varennes. He was told that Billaud
had just gone out, but would return shortly.

"Ah! Here is Fouché!" some one exclaimed.

It was in truth Fouché, the deputy, who now entered. He was beset with
questions. Yes! they were not mistaken, he told them. Robespierre was now
going to throw off the mask, and denounce some of his colleagues. "And I
am sure he has not forgotten me," added Fouché, ironically.

He was immediately surrounded by eager questioners. The names? Did

he know the names? they asked anxiously. Fouché did not know; but
everybody was threatened, and each must look after himself; the sitting
would soon begin.

All turned their eyes anxiously to the clock. It was not yet noon; they
had still twelve minutes! Now another deputy came in, breathless with the
news that Robespierre had just entered the Hall of the Convention, with his
brother Augustin, Couthon, Saint-Just, Lebas, and all his followers. The
galleries, crowded to excess, had received the Incorruptible with loud
cheers.

"Hark, the rabble are applauding; he has hired his usual claque," said
one.

"That's true," another answered. "Since five this morning the

Robespierrists, male and female, have taken possession of the galleries,
yelling, feasting, and drinking."
 "They are already drunk."

"Well! Let us go and offer our heads to the drunkards!" exclaimed

Fouché.

But just then a door on the right opened, and Billaud-Varennes entered.
Every one paused.

"Here is Billaud at last."

Billaud was looking anxious, and wiping his brow, worn out with the
heat, he asked for a glass of beer. They eagerly questioned him.

"Was it true, then? They would have to fight?"

"Yes! fight to the death. They ought to have listened to him. Robespierre
had told him plainly enough that there would be war. And now that they
could not prove the plot...."

"What plot?" asked Fouché.

"Ah, yes! It's true; you don't know...."

Billaud made a sign to shut the doors, as Robespierre had spies in all the
corridors. The doors securely closed, Billaud-Varennes again told the story
of the Englishman. Fouché listened with curiosity. Other members, Vadier,
Amar, Voullaud, who had just entered, also followed Billaud's story with
keen interest, while those who already knew of the plot, came and went,
deep in discussion, waiting for Billaud to finish, to give their opinion.

Billaud-Varennes now produced the order of release for the two women,
signed by Robespierre, and brought from the prison of La Bourbe by
Coulongeon.

"There can be no doubt. We have in this quite enough to ruin him," said
Fouché; "but what about that young man from La Force?"

"I questioned him again closely just now in the next room. He persists
in his first statement, which appears to me quite genuine—as genuine as is
his rage against Robespierre, whom he regrets, he says, not to have stabbed
at the Fête of the Supreme Being."

"Ah! if he had! what a riddance!" was the cry with which one and all
greeted Billaud's last words.

"True; but he has not done it," observed Fouché drily. "As to the plot, it
has escaped our grasp."

"Not so," some one remarked; "his treason is evident."

A warm discussion ensued. The treachery was obvious to the

Committee, but it would not be so in the eyes of the public. It must be
proved. And where was the Englishman? Where were the women? To
accuse Robespierre thus, without sufficient proof, was sheer folly. The only
witness available, the agent Coulongeon, was in the pay of the Committee.
Robespierre would make a speech on it, call it a concocted plan, and
annihilate his accusers with an oratorical flourish.

"Nothing truer!" remarked another deputy.

"He has only to open his mouth and every one trembles."

"Very well; let us gag him," said Fouché. "It's the only means of putting
an end to it all."

They looked at him, not quite catching his meaning. Fouché explained
his idea. They had but to drown Robespierre's voice at the sitting by their
clamour. They had but to howl, scream, vociferate; the people in the
galleries would protest noisily, and their outcry would add to the tumult.
Robespierre would strain his voice in vain to be heard above the uproar, and
then fall back exhausted and vanquished.

"That's it," they cried unanimously.

Billaud also thought this an excellent idea, and at once began to arrange
for letting all their friends know as soon as possible, for Robespierre must
be prevented from uttering a single audible word. Every one approved. Just
then a door opened.

"Be quick! Saint-Just is ascending the tribune!" called a voice.

"Very well. We may as well commence with him."

And they one and all made for the doors in an indescribable disorder.

"Now for it," cried Billaud, laying his glass down on the sideboard.

But meanwhile Fouché signed to Vadier, Amar, and Voullaud to remain.

They looked at him in surprise. Fouché waited for the noise to subside, then
assuring himself that no one could overhear him, he confided his fears to
them. It was not everything to drown Robespierre's voice. Even arrested,
condemned, and on the death-tumbril, his hands bound, Robespierre would
still be dangerous; a sudden rush and riot could deliver him, and crush them
all! Then lowering his voice, he continued—

"The young madman of whom Billaud spoke just now...."

"Well?"

"Where is he?"

Amar pointed to a door on the left.

"Let him come in!" said Fouché; "I will speak to him in the name of the
Committee."

They did not yet quite grasp his meaning, but Voullaud went all the
same and opened the door.

"Hush!" said Fouché, "here is the young man!"

Olivier entered, followed by a gendarme, who, on seeing Fouché and

the other members, stopped on the threshold. Olivier looked at them
indifferently, expecting to be again cross-examined about the Englishman.
Fouché had taken his hat and put it on, as if going out.
 "Young man, you were the first to charge the despot, whom we are
about to fight, with his crimes! This is sufficient to recommend you to the
indulgence of the Committee."

As Olivier advanced in astonishment, he continued—

"You may go if you like!"

Fouché turned to the gendarme—

"The citoyen is free!"

The gendarme retired.

Vadier now understood Fouché's idea. Taking up his hat also, he

remarked—

"And if our enemy is victorious, take care not to fall again into his
clutches!"

Olivier who was preparing to go, stopped suddenly. Unhappily, he said,

he had not only himself to tremble for. His mother and fiancée were in
prison and Robespierre would revenge himself on them.

"Most probably!" replied Fouché.

"Then the Committee ought to release them also, and with even more
reason!"

Fouché shrugged his shoulders regretfully.

It had been the intention of the Committee, but the two prisoners were
beyond their reach.

"How?" asked Olivier anxiously.

Simply because they were no longer at the prison of La Bourbe.

Olivier gasped—
 "Condemned?"

"Not yet! But Lebas had taken them away with an order from
Robespierre."

Here Fouché, picking up the order left on the table by Billaud-Varennes,

showed it to Olivier, who read it in horrified amazement.

"Where are they then," he cried.

"At the Conciergerie, where they would be judged within twenty-four

hours."

"The wretch! the wretch!"

He implored them that they might be released. The Committee were all-
powerful!—They, powerful, indeed? They looked at him pityingly. He
believed that? What simplicity! How could they release the two women
when they were on the point of being sacrificed themselves? They would
have difficulty enough to save their own heads!

"To-morrow," continued Fouché, "we shall most likely be with your

mother, at the foot of the scaffold."

Olivier looked at them in terror. Was it possible? Was there no one that
could be found to kill this dangerous wild beast?

Fouché, who had consulted his colleagues in a rapid glance, now felt the
moment ripe.

"Assassinate him, you mean?" he asked.

Olivier lost all self-control. Is a mad dog assassinated? He is killed,

that's all! What did it matter if the one who did it were torn to pieces; he
would have had his revenge, and would save further victims.

"Certainly," said Fouché, "and if Robespierre is victorious, it is the only

chance of saving your mother."
 "But don't rely on that!" Vadier remarked.

Amar went even further.

"Patriots like Brutus are not often found!" he said.

But Olivier cried out in his fury that only one was wanted, and then
looked about for the door.

"Which is the way out?"

Vadier pointed to the exit.

"Thank you, citoyens! ... Adieu! au revoir!"

The four men silently watched him disappear, and then looked at each
other.... Would he do it? It was not impossible!

"Meanwhile, let us go and howl!" suggested Fouché.

And they rushed into the Convention-room.

CHAPTER XIII

A BROKEN IDOL

Saint-Just is in the tribune. Collot d'Herbois occupies the presidential

chair, Collot who, at two in the morning, suspecting Saint-Just's treachery,
had openly charged him with it. War is in the air, and every member is at his
post.

Fouché looks round for Robespierre as he crosses to his seat. There he

is; in the semicircle before the bust of Brutus, at the foot of the tribune
which he seems to guard like a vigilant sentinel.

"He is dressed as he was at the Fête of the Supreme Being," whispers

Fouché ironically to his neighbour.

Yes, the Incorruptible has on his sky-blue coat, white-silk embroidered

waistcoat, and nankeen knee-breeches buttoned over white stockings, nor
has he omitted the powder and the curls. What a strange figure, with his
dapper daintiness, his old-fashioned attire, in that seething furnace of fifteen
hundred people, actors and spectators, so closely packed, and, most of them
with bared breasts, suffocating in the awful heat which oppresses them! The
sans-culottes up in the gallery have even taken off their traditional red
nightcaps, which they hang on the handles of their sword-sticks like
bloodstained trophies.

It is as they expected. Since five the hall has been taken possession of
by Robespierrists. All the worst scum of Paris has gathered there; all the
bloodhounds of the Revolution, all the riff-raff who accompany the death-
tumbrils to the scaffold to the song of the Carmagnole; fish-wives and
rowdies, recruited and hired at twenty-four sous apiece to drown with their
vociferations every hostile attempt made against the idol of the Commune.

This brutish mob, reeking of sausages, pressed meat, gingerbread and

beer, eating and drinking, poison the atmosphere of the Hall.

Robespierre's arrival at twelve o'clock is hailed by repeated rounds of

loud applause, which he acknowledges with a gracious bow, proud and
smiling. Turning to Lebas who accompanies him, he remarks, "Did I not tell
you it would be a success?"

So certain is he of victory that before starting he had set the Duplays

quite at ease as to the issue of the struggle. "Believe me," he had said, "the
greater part of the Convention are unbiassed."

But suddenly, at the commencement of the sitting, when Saint-Just

appears in the tribune, a counter movement makes itself felt in the
assembly. Robespierre realising the importance of at once preventing any
hostile demonstration, advances to the foot of the tribune, determined to
daunt his opponents by a bold front. Saint-Just at once renews the
accusation brought against the Committee by the Incorruptible the day
before, accentuating it without mentioning names.

It is now that the anti-Robespierrist plot, admirably planned, begins to

work.

Tallien, one of the conspirators, breaks in upon Saint-Just violently.

"Enough of these vague accusations!" he cries. "The names! Let us have

the names!"

Saint-Just, encouraged by a look from Robespierre, simply shrugs his

shoulders, and continues. But his voice is immediately drowned in a
thundering clamour, and in spite of the vehement protestations of
Robespierre, he is unable to finish his speech. The anti-Robespierrist cabal
are playing their part well. They simply roar.

Billaud-Varennes demands a hearing. He is already in the tribune,

greeted by sustained applause.

Robespierre, growing excited, protests and persists in speaking, but his

voice is drowned in cries of "Silence! Silence! Let Billaud-Varennes
speak!" Collot d'Herbois rings the president's bell, and adds to the noise
under the pretext of repressing it.

"Let Billaud-Varennes speak! Let Billaud-Varennes speak!"

But Robespierre continues to protest—

"Don't listen to that man! His words are but poisonous drivel!"

Immediately loud cries are heard—

"Order! Order! Robespierre is not in the tribune! Billaud-Varennes is in

the tribune! Silence! Silence!"

And Robespierre, with a shrug of contempt, returns to his place.

 Silence being gradually restored, Billaud-Varennes begins to speak.

"I was at the Jacobins' yesterday; the room was crowded with men
posted there to insult the National representatives, and to calumniate the
Committee of Public Safety which devotes its days and nights to kneading
bread for you, to forging arms and raising armies for you, to sending them
forth to victory!"

A voice is heard in approval, and fresh applause breaks out; but the gaze
of the orator is fixed on that part of the assembly called the Mountain. He
seems to recognise some one, at whom he points with lifted arm.

"I see yonder, on the Mountain, one of the wretches who insulted us
yesterday. There he stands!"

This is the signal for renewed uproar. Several members spring up and
turn round towards the person indicated.

"Yes, yes, behold him!" cries Billaud.

The agitation increases. Cries of "To the door with him! Turn him out!"
are heard. The man pleads innocence, and tries to weather the storm, but
seeing the majority against him escapes as best he can, mixes with the
crowd and disappears. Silence is with difficulty restored among the
infuriated members.

The orator continues, throwing violent and insidious phrases broadcast

among the assembly like lighted fire-brands. His thrusts strike nearer home
now; he accuses Robespierre openly to his face.

"You will shudder when I tell you that the soldiery is under the
unscrupulous control of that man who has the audacity to place at the head
of the section-men and artillery of the city the degraded Hauriot, and that
without consulting you at all, solely according to his own will, for he listens
to no other dictates. He has, he says, deserted the Committees because they
oppressed him. He lies!"
 Robespierre rises, his lips quivering at the insult, and attempts to reply
from his place.

"Yes, you lie!" continues Billaud. "You left us because you did not find
among us either partisans, flatterers, or accomplices in your infamous
projects against Liberty. Your sole aim has been to sow dissension, to
disunite us that you might attack us singly and remain in power at the head
of drunkards and debauchees, like that secretary who stole a hundred and
fifty thousand livres, and whom you took under your wing, you, the
Incorruptible, you who make such boast of your strict virtue and integrity!"

Laughter, mixed with some applause is heard, but Robespierre shrugs

his shoulders contemptuously at such vulgar abuse. Fouché, from his bench,
laughs loudly with the rest, and leaning towards his neighbour, whispers—

"Clever tactics! ... Billaud is splendid!"

The speaker, in conclusion, appeals to the patriotism of the assembly,

and implores the members to watch over its safety. If they do not take
energetic measures against this madman, he says, the Convention is lost, for
he only speaks of purifying it that he may send to the scaffold all those who
stand in the way of his personal ambition. It is, he insists, the preservation
of the Convention which is at stake, the safety of the Republic, the salvation
of their country.

"I demand," so runs his peroration, "that the Convention sit permanently
until it has baffled the plans of this new Catiline, whose only aim is to cross
the trench which still separates him from supremacy by filling it with our
heads!"

Thunders of applause greet Billaud-Varennes' words; shouts, cheers, and

waving of hands which continue long after he has left the tribune.

Robespierre now leaves his seat in great agitation, crying—

"It is all false, and I will prove it!"

 But his words are again drowned in an uproar of voices, and cries of
"Silence! Silence!"

"I will give the traitor his answer!" exclaims Robespierre, trying to
make himself heard above the tumult which increases at every word he
utters, so that his voice is now completely lost. Some of the members rush
into the semicircle, forming a living rampart round the tribune.

The din is dominated by a new voice from the presidential chair.

"Silence, let no man speak!" it thunders forth.

It is Thuriot, who has just replaced Collot d'Herbois in the chair.

"I demand a hearing!" vociferates the Incorruptible, "and I will be

heard!"

"You shall not!"

"I wish to speak!" cries a deputy, taking at the same time possession of
the tribune.

It is Vadier.

Thuriot rings the president's bell.

"Vadier has speech!"

"Yes, Vadier! Vadier!" members exclaim from all sides.

Robespierre continues to protest, disputing frantically with his

neighbours in his fury.

"It is infamous treachery! Infamous!"

Again they call out—

"Vadier! Silence! Vadier! Vadier!"

 "Citoyens!" commences Vadier—

But the speaker is interrupted by Robespierre who furiously persists in

claiming a hearing.

"Compel him to be quiet!" cries some one.

Thuriot rings his bell, and orders Robespierre to let Vadier speak.

"Vadier is to speak! Silence!"

Robespierre once more resigns himself to his fate, and returns to his
place.

The tumult dies away in a low murmur, above which Vadier's

mellifluous voice is heard.

"Citoyens!" he begins, "not until the 22nd Prairial did I open my eyes to
the double-dealing of that man who wears so many masks, and when he
cannot save one of his creatures consigns him to the scaffold!"

Laughter and applause run round the assembly. Thus encouraged,

Vadier continues—

"Only listen to him. He will tell you, with his usual modesty, that he is
the sole defender of Liberty, but so harassed, so discouraged, so persecuted!
... And it is he who attacks every one himself!"

"Hear, hear!" shouts a voice. "Excellent! That's it, exactly!"

"He says," continues Vadier, "that he is prevented from speaking. Yet,

strange to say, no one ever speaks but he!"

This new sally is hailed with renewed roars of laughter, and on every
side members are convulsed with merriment. Robespierre writhes in his
seat, casting glances of hatred and contempt around him.

But Vadier is in the right mood, and goes on—

 "This is his regular refrain: 'I am the best friend of the Republic, and as
So-and-so has looked askance at me, So-and-so conspires against the
Republic, since I and the Republic are one!'"

Again laughter and cheers. "Very good, Vadier! That's it, Vadier!"

By this time the orator's ironical and facetious allusions have served
their purpose well, covering Robespierre with ridicule, and lowering him in
the eyes of many who were still wavering, hardly daring to join the
opposition.

But Vadier, carried away by success, wanders presently from the main
point, and loses himself in a maze of petty details. He repeats anecdotes
going the rounds of taverns and wine-shops, speaks of Robespierre's spies
dogging the heels of the Committee, and quotes his personal experience.
The attention of the assembly begins to flag. Robespierre feels this and,
taking instant advantage of it, tries to bring the Convention back to a sense
of its dignity.

"What! can you give credence to such arrant nonsense?"

But Tallien has realised the danger, and rushing towards the tribune
cries—

"I demand a hearing! We are wandering from the main question!"

"Fear not! I shall return to it!" replies Robespierre, who has now
reached the semicircle, and tries to enter the tribune by another stairway.

But several members standing on the steps push him back.

"No! we will have Tallien! Tallien!"

"After me!" cries Robespierre, still struggling.

"Tallien! Tallien has speech now!"

But Robespierre climbs up by the banister with the fury of a madman.

 "Unjust, infamous judges! Will you then only listen to my enemies!"

The Incorruptible is answered by the one cry rising from a hundred

throats.

"Silence! Order! Order! Tallien! Tallien!"

Tallien is in the tribune.

"Citoyens!" he breaks out in a stentorian voice.

"Hold! Scoundrel!" shouts Robespierre, desperately.

"Have the madman arrested!" cries a voice in the crowd.

Robespierre still does his utmost to force a passage on the stairway.

"I will speak! I will be heard, wretches! I will speak!"

The uproar increases, aggravated by Robespierre's boisterous

pertinacity. The jingling of Thuriot's bell at last restores order, though not
without difficulty.

The opening words of Tallien's speech are already audible, amidst

enthusiastic cheers. Robespierre, held firmly by some of the deputies, has
ceased his struggles, and stands on the steps in an indignant attitude, his
features twitching convulsively, his eyes, glaring in hatred, fixed on the new
speaker who is preparing to hurl at him another shower of insults.

"The masks are torn away!" cries Tallien.

"Bravo! Bravo!"

"It was the speech delivered yesterday in this very hall, and repeated the
same evening at the Jacobin Club, that brought us face to face with this
unmasked tyrant, this vaunted patriot, who at the memorable epoch of the
invasion of the Tuileries and the arrest of the King, only emerged from his
den three days after the fight..."
 Sneers and hisses reach Robespierre, repeated up to the very steps of the
tribune, below which he stands.

"This honourable citizen, who poses before the Committee of Public

Safety as champion of the oppressed, goes home, and in the secrecy of his
own house draws up the death-lists which have stained the altar of new-
born Liberty with so much blood!"

Renewed cheers and cries of "Hear! hear!" rise from nearly every seat in
the hall.

"But his dark designs are unveiled!" continues Tallien. "We shall crush
the tyrant before he has succeeded in swelling the river of blood with which
France is already inundated. His long and successful career of crime has
made him forget his habitual prudence. He has betrayed himself at the very
moment of triumph, when nothing is wanting to him but the name of king!
... I also was at the Jacobins' yesterday, and I trembled for the Republic
when I saw the vast army that flocked to the standard of this new Cromwell.
I invoked the shade of Brutus, and if the Convention will not have recourse
to the sword of justice to crush this tyrant, I am armed with a dagger that
shall pierce his heart!"

Tallien makes a movement as if to rush on Robespierre dagger in hand;

but he is arrested by a burst of unanimous applause. A hundred deputies
have risen and are calling out: "Bravo, Tallien! Bravo!"

The orator, in an attitude of defiance, gazes steadily at Robespierre,

who, grasping convulsively at the railings of the tribune, screams himself
hoarse, challenging Tallien and the deputies around, while they answer him
with abuse, shaking their fists in his face. It is a veritable Babel of cries,
appeals, and insults. The President, now upstanding, vainly tries to restore
order with his bell.

At last there is a lull, of which Robespierre attempts to take advantage.

"Vile wretches!" he cries, "would you condemn me unheard?"

But he is answered by a telling home-thrust—