Media

Owen D. Young: WWI Statesman, GE Radio & TV Pioneer

May 19, 2026 by Randall Whitestone 2 Comments

On a warm, sunny day amid the winding hills of Herkimer County, the world descended on Van Hornesville, a small Mohawk Valley community, without a train station but home to a global, widely respected statesman of commerce and international finance.

Ninety-five years ago this June, Owen D. Young (1874-1962), architect of the Young Plan on Germany’s fiscal rehabilitation after World War I, and longtime chairman of General Electric Company, presided over graduation ceremonies for the town’s newly built seven-room schoolhouse replete with a swimming pool, a playground, and an auditorium “wired for talkies.” [Read more…] about Owen D. Young: WWI Statesman, GE Radio & TV Pioneer

North Country Proposals in the Proposed State Budgets

March 13, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The New York Senate and Assembly have passed their “one-house” budget bills and Adirondack Park advocates are watching annual negotiations with the Governor to see how their budget priorities are reflected in Northern New York.

Adirondack Council Executive Director Raul J. Aguirre called the proposals a “commitment to clean water funding, wilderness and visitor-use management, climate data collection, and crucial training programs for next-generation leaders.” [Read more…] about North Country Proposals in the Proposed State Budgets

The Creation of the Postal Service & American Political Culture

February 2, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

The founders established the post office before they had even signed the Declaration of Independence, and for a very long time, it was the U.S. government’s largest and most important endeavor — indeed, it was the government for most citizens.

This was no conventional mail network but the central nervous system of the new body politic, designed to bind thirteen quarrelsome colonies into the United States by delivering news about public affairs to every citizen — a radical idea that appalled Europe’s great powers. [Read more…] about The Creation of the Postal Service & American Political Culture

Martin Luther King’s Northern New York Legacy

January 19, 2026 by Lawrence P. Gooley Leave a Comment

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and if you lived through the 1960s, you’ll never forget that turbulent decade. Even turbulent is putting it mildly: weekly classroom drills for nuclear attacks (Get under my desk? What the heck is this thing made of?); riots over race, poverty, the draft, and the Vietnam War; the assassinations of JFK, King, and Bobby Kennedy; and so much more.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a leading figure of those times, beloved and hated nationally and internationally. Love him or hate him, he was remarkable. Against the worst of odds, he effected change through peaceful protest. The impact was clear, even here in Northern New York. [Read more…] about Martin Luther King’s Northern New York Legacy

New York City Location Scout Photo Collections

January 7, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Location scouting is a part of the pre-production process of making a film or television show. Before digital files and location-scouting apps transformed the business of film location scouting, New York’s production world ran on hard copies — real photographs, taped into real folders, stored in real boxes. [Read more…] about New York City Location Scout Photo Collections

Once A Educational Powerhouse, CPB is No More

January 6, 2026 by Editorial Staff 5 Comments

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress to steward the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting, announced Monday that its Board of Directors has voted to dissolve the organization after 58 years, rather than be “vulnerable to future political manipulation or misuse.”

The decision follows Congress’s rescission of all of CPB’s federal funding and comes after sustained political attacks by the Trump regime and Republican Party that made it impossible for CPB to continue operating as the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 intended. [Read more…] about Once A Educational Powerhouse, CPB is No More

Printing Nueva York: Spanish-Language Media and Democracy

January 5, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

In Printing Nueva York: Spanish-Language Print Culture, Media Change, and Democracy in the Late Nineteenth Century (NYU Press, 2026) by Kelley Kreitz, who leads the digital mapping project C19LatinoNYC.org, uncovers the network of Spanish-language writers and editors in 19th-century New York, whose media innovations fueled anti-colonial struggles and democratic ideals.

At the end of the nineteenth century, New York City was a vital hub for writers from Latin America, providing a haven of press freedom and the latest printing technology. [Read more…] about Printing Nueva York: Spanish-Language Media and Democracy

Misinformation Nation: Fake News in Early America

January 17, 2024 by Dr. Liz Covart Leave a Comment

What is the origin of misinformation in the American press? When did Americans decide that they needed to be concerned with figuring out whether the information they heard or read was truthful or fake?

In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Jordan E. Taylor joins us to find answers to these questions. Jordan is a historian who studies the history of media and the ways early Americans created, spread, and circulated news. [Read more…] about Misinformation Nation: Fake News in Early America

Back Number Budd: A 19th Century One-Man Newspaper Archive

June 1, 2023 by Barbara Slonevsky Leave a Comment

“Back number” in contemporary parlance means “back issue.” Today we take for granted the availability of old newspapers and other periodicals, as well as their invaluable glimpse into our past. But this was not the case in the 19th century. [Read more…] about Back Number Budd: A 19th Century One-Man Newspaper Archive

Unusual Christmas Safety Warnings from the Past

December 26, 2022 by Lawrence P. Gooley 2 Comments

Twenty years ago, Dana Carvey’s character, “Grumpy Old Man,” was a popular recurring feature of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update. He’d offer an assessment of current times compared to the so-called “good old days,” highlighting some barbaric practices of the past (exaggerated to great comedic effect) with the closing line, “And we liked it!”

I was reminded of that concept while perusing some shocking guidelines suggested in the early 1900s regarding the enjoyment of a safe Christmas season. Regional newspapers carried a list of suggestions for an enhanced experience … and I liked it! [Read more…] about Unusual Christmas Safety Warnings from the Past

Local Newspaper Editor Ponders Election of 1876

November 2, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Presidential elections can strain neighborly relations, as reiterated in Washington County’s Granville Sentinel in 1876.

“The one pleasant thing about it, when the cruel suspense is over, they’ll be less lying in the newspapers and less personal defamation in the streets,” the Sentinel quipped on October 29th. [Read more…] about Local Newspaper Editor Ponders Election of 1876

Old Ticonderoga Gets A Newspaper, 1874

February 18, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

“The sleighing just now is good and our teamsters are happy. The cotton factory is running full time,” the Ticonderoga Sentinel reported in its debut issue on Feb. 7, 1874. “The band boys are looking for rooms in which to practice.” [Read more…] about Old Ticonderoga Gets A Newspaper, 1874

Blue Coal for Christmas: 1930s Glens Falls Radio

December 5, 2019 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Are you getting Blue Coal for Christmas?

You might have asked Santa Claus that question, when he took to the air on WBGF radio 1370 of Glens Falls at 6:30 pm Dec. 6, 1930, sponsored by Merkel & Gelman department store.

But to be certain, you would have wanted a second opinion, because only “The Shadow knows!” [Read more…] about Blue Coal for Christmas: 1930s Glens Falls Radio

Charles Evans Hughes Lecture In Ticonderoga

April 9, 2019 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Longtime Glens Falls Post-Star reporter Maury Thompson will present a program on local figure Charles Evans Hughes on April 12th in Ticonderoga.

Hughes served as Governor of New York from 1907 until 1910. After serving as governor, Hughes was a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice. He resigned from the Court in 1916 to accept the Republican nomination for President, losing by a narrow margin to incumbent Democrat Woodrow Wilson. He would go on to serve as U.S. Secretary of State and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. [Read more…] about Charles Evans Hughes Lecture In Ticonderoga

Copyright & Fair Use in Early America

March 6, 2019 by Dr. Liz Covart Leave a Comment

In the 21st century, we are all creators and users of content. We take original photos with our smartphones, generate blog posts, digital videos, and podcasts. Some of us write books and articles. And nearly everyone contributes content to social media.

Given all of the information and content we generate and use, it’s really important for us to understand the principles of copyright and fair use, principles that have an early American past. [Read more…] about Copyright & Fair Use in Early America

Long Island: Newsday’s History With Bob Keeler

February 1, 2018 by Chris Kretz Leave a Comment

Newsday has helped shape the development of Nassau and Suffolk counties since its first edition rolled off the presses in 1940. And it never would have happened without the unique marriage of Alicia Patterson and Harry Guggenheim.

Learn the backstory of Long Island’s paper of record, as told by former Newsday reporter Bob Keeler. Bob spent years researching the lives of Alicia, Harry, Bill Moyers, and all those involved in Newsday‘s first half-century.

His book Newsday: A Candid History of the Respectable Tabloid, published in 1990, is required reading for anyone interested in Long Island, journalism, and post-WWII politics. [Read more…] about Long Island: Newsday’s History With Bob Keeler

Digital Newspaper Program Adds 18th-Century Publications

September 6, 2016 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

New digital content has been added to Chronicling America, the open access database of historic U.S. newspapers that is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

The newly available digital content is from 18th-century newspapers from the three early capitals of the United States: New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

The addition of these newspapers is an expansion of the chronological scope of NDNP, which has come under criticism for the slow pace of its digitization program. The program is expanding its current time window of the years 1836-1922, to include digitized newspapers from the years 1690-1963. [Read more…] about Digital Newspaper Program Adds 18th-Century Publications

PR Museum Launches ‘Public Relations Through the Ages’

June 6, 2016 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Museum of Public Relations, the only PR museum in the world, recently launched a historical timeline documenting the history of public relations.

The timeline, “Public Relations Through the Ages,” illustrates the evolution of the PR profession and its relationship to the development of human communication. Presented jointly by the museum and Hofstra University, this timeline highlights the significant people, events and inventions which have connected messages and messengers through the ages. The timeline divides history into five ages, beginning with the earliest forms of communication and ending with the most recent developments of digital media. Each section contains images and condenses years of history into concise descriptions, providing links to additional resources for in-depth research. This tool can be accessed digitally on the museum’s website. [Read more…] about PR Museum Launches ‘Public Relations Through the Ages’

‘No One Helped’: The Myth of Urban Apathy

March 6, 2016 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Marcia M. Gallo takes a look at one of America’s most infamous crime stories, in No One Helped (2015 Cornell University). This new book examines the 1964 rape and murder of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese, in a middle-class neighborhood of Queens.

Front-page reports in the New York Times incorrectly identified thirty-eight indifferent witnesses to the crime, fueling fears of apathy and urban decay. Genovese’s life, including her lesbian relationship, was also obscured in media accounts of the crime.

Fifty years later, the story of Kitty Genovese continues to circulate in popular culture. Although it is now known that there were far fewer witnesses to the crime than was reported in 1964, the moral of the story continues to be urban apathy. No One Helped traces the Genovese story’s development and resilience while challenging the myth it created. [Read more…] about ‘No One Helped’: The Myth of Urban Apathy

Margaret Fuller Marker Planned For Fishkill Landing

January 1, 2016 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

The Pomeroy Foundation has awarded the city of Beacon, New York, a marker grant for the Margaret Fuller marker to be installed and dedicated in the spring of 2016.

Rev. Michael Barnett, representing women’s rights activist Margaret Fuller for the New York Cultural Heritage Tourism Network’s 100th Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote in NYS 2017 Committee, collaborated with Elizabeth Evans, Assistant to the Mayor, and Robert Murphy, President of the Beacon Historical Society, to provide the primary source documentation. [Read more…] about Margaret Fuller Marker Planned For Fishkill Landing

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