Chapter one the “Sowing The Seeds of Revolution”

In chapter one the “Sowing The Seeds of Revolution” talked about early journalism helped American colonists to fight against British stationed troops, and it also let American colonists to think about seceding from the British government to form a new independent country. However, Without Sam Adams’s Journal of Occurrences and Tom Paine’s Common Sense and other early news publications, the colonists wouldn’t have their independence. Among the early colonial news editors, I believe Sam Adam and Tom Paine were the most important characters that helped colonists to raise a revolution. They had their own special ways to publish and spread news among American colony.
When Britain decided to station troops in Boston because of protests over tax initiatives and the dislike of the troops among colonists, Sam Adam published false rumors about how badly the misbehaviors of soldiers in Boston, and how they mistreat colonists. At the end, Britain withdrew the troops from Boston. I think Sam Adam has violated the journalism’s first obligation that is to the truth and the discipline of verification. Adam used news with “evidence that many of the items were either fabrications or extreme exaggerations evolves from the exact dates they were printed in the newspapers” to support the soldiers’ mistreats. Also, in the incidence of Boston Massacre, Sam Adam also exaggerated soldiers’ cruelty to colonists in the newspapers, and he gave an illustration in the newspapers. Nevertheless, Adam’s the false information about the British soldiers helps colonists to pursuit their independence from Britain.
On the other hand, Tom Paine began to talk about the independence from Britain, and he used simple and straightforward language to convey his idea in his Common Sense, so the common folks can understand the idea Paine had expressed. The method Tom Paine had used corresponds with one of the ten elements of journalism that is to keep the news comprehensive. The Tom Paine’s essays also inspire the colonists to fight for independence. Sam Adams and Tom Paine both have contributed their efforts to help colonists to be free from Britain and to advocate news publication.