ABSTRACT
Politics and the media have long been intimately involved with each other, with media strongly setting the agenda that politics is very important. Although television has made some drastic changes in the nature of that relationship, the connection itself is not new. Print media have long covered political campaigns, and the level of political rhetoric has sometimes been far more vicious than it is today. For example, the U.S. presidential campaign of 1884 saw Democrat Grover Cleveland’s alleged fathering of an illegitimate child as a major campaign issue (“Hey, man, where’s my pa?” “Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha!”). For another historical example, see Box 8.1 for more on the political use of the media by abolitionists in preCivil War United States.
