ABSTRACT
The importance of the inverted pyramid, which supplanted the chronological style of antebellum news writing is difficult to overstate. Most journalism historians point to the American Civil War as an era of changing reportage. Stanton had a fitting background and temperament for a man who would be at the forefront of a new, “factual” style of newswriting. Stanton was confirmed in January, 1862, at the height of Lincoln’s impatience with George McClellan. The various impressions of Stanton dichotomize into two distinct groups: those who were hurt by Stanton’s restrictions and those who saw their necessity. The two most widely held theories of the development of the inverted pyramid are that the war and unreliable telegraphs pushed reporters to put their most important news in their first paragraphs; and that wire services, notably the Associated Press, used the inverted pyramid because they had to be impartial.
