Chicago Pullman Strike Essay

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The Chicago Times and the Chicago Turbine were two leading newspapers in the late 1890’s. Both of the newspapers had coverage of the Pullman Strike available to their readers. The Pullman Strike was an event in Illinois history where workers walked out of their occupations because of the way they were treated. Due to the depression, the worker’s wages were cut by twenty-five percent. The cut caused the workers to be distressed and strike against the corporation. To be expected, there was bias in each of the newspapers. Newspapers change stories around frequently, taking one side of an event and wording the story in their favor. Having the stories changed also changed the reader’s outlook on the story. Newspapers are not reliable for use as sources because they are most often biased by praising one side of a story and critiquing the other. Bias is present in almost every newspaper article. The wording of an article is the easiest and most common way to show bias. If writers want to speak poorly on one side of an argument,…show more content…
Their writers took the side of the story which showed the strikers did what they had to do to get what they wanted. They truly had nothing to lose. The reporter wrote, “The walk-out was a complete surprise to the officials…” To conclude the argument, he adds, “Mr. Pullman had offered to allow the men the privilege of examining the books of the company to verify his statement that the workers were running at a loss.” The words in this quote (walk-out, surprise, offered, allow, privilege, verify) show that the writer had a positive outlook on the strike. Provided that they believe what they read, bias has an impact on the readers. For instance, when a Chicago Times reader and a Chicago Tribune reader both read about the Pullman Strike in their newspapers, they have a different vision of what actually happened. Being objective is important so that readers understand what truly

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