Chapter 323: Public Opinion Reversal
William McKinley's assassination is of course very important to the citizenry, but it is not very important to the major companies, at least not yet. As a country is established for a long time, the power of the president will definitely become stronger and stronger. The power of the federal government now cannot be compared with that of more than a hundred years later, so naturally the power of the president is much smaller.
Of course, the assassination of William McKinley is still worthy of great attention, and some details were later revealed through reports. Compared with the situation faced by Kennedy decades later, newspapers in this era really deserve the evaluation of freedom of speech. One detail caught Sheffield's attention. The assassin of William McKinley was searched on a newspaper, which was a reprint of the San Francisco Examiner calling for the assassination of William McKinley.
"God must have been so upset to see me being humiliated by these night soil collectors that he actually revealed such a trump card." In front of Gail and McHale, Sheffield was overjoyed to find information that was beneficial to him. It was simply that his recent misfortune had moved God so much that God, who also bullied the weak and feared the strong, came out to rescue him.
"William, is there anything I can do for you?" Although Sheffield has not been affected in recent months, as soon as he opened his eyes, all major newspapers started a new round of verbal battles. Although the slave owners could not be killed by scolding, it made him feel irritated. How could he pretend that nothing had happened?
At least for the two of them, it had been a long time since they had seen Sheffield laugh heartily. Who could stand having a sullen face every day? It was only today that they saw their friend smile again. Was it because of the assassination of the president?
The assassination of the president was certainly not something Sheffield should be happy about. How could he be happy when he thought that his successor Roosevelt had the title of trust crusher? However, the process of the president's assassination could dilute this little unhappiness.
"What does it mean to find the reprints calling for the assassination of the president? It means that the newspapers' reckless reporting has posed a fatal threat to the stability of our country. Even our president was assassinated by incited people, and the safety of others will be even more dangerous. It can be said that the president is a victim of the reckless development of public opinion, which is a fact that all citizens should know." Sheffield chattered excitedly, and finally laughed heartily, "I have been scolded by these dung collectors for several months. Although I took the bullet for the Democratic Party's actions, it should end now."
"That's right. The assassination of the president is linked to the newspapers that were found. This way you won't be criticized." Gale slapped his hands in agreement. "The comments that curse you will surely disappear soon. William, you won't be criticized any more."
"Is it just to stop being scolded? You have to pay the price for scolding me. I can't let our president die in vain." Although it was not the beginning of the year, Sheffield still made up his New Year's wish and prayed for the president's death in advance. Only the president's real death would be the most beneficial to him now. "The newspapers in our country have no bottom line. They are the direct culprits who killed the president. They must pay the price."
"You want to take advantage of this opportunity to pin the incident on public opinion, but there is one thing you should consider. The San Francisco Examiner, which called for the assassination of the president, is owned by Hearst, a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party." McHale hesitated and said with embarrassment, "If you manipulate this matter, maybe someone from the Democratic Party will come forward to explain. You also know that Hearst has certain connections in the Democratic Party."
"We just need to take care of ourselves, why bother with Hearst!" Gail refuted McHale. "Hearst is a Democrat, but what does that have to do with us? With more Democrats, we're worried about whether we can continue to do business. McHale, you're just thinking too much. A few months ago, the Democratic state governments were accused like that, but he didn't play any role. People who know he's on the Democratic side might think he's a senior Republican newspaper."
Compared to McHale, Gail has never thought much. Even in McHale's mind, Gail has built such a big business today entirely because of good luck. If it were any other businessman, his family would have been ruined.
But this time, Gale hit the nail on the head. He was covered in lice, so how could he have time to scratch the itch for others? If he didn't take advantage of such a good opportunity, why would he care about the friendship of the Democrats?
Did he have any friendship with Hearst? If you think about it carefully, there is no friendship at all. Not only that, there is even hatred! Although both of them were xenophobic, Hearst was xenophobic to the Chinese, and Sheffield was xenophobic to the blacks. The slave owner's xenophobia is naturally morally untenable, and the group he xenophobic is larger than the other party's, so it cannot be used to accuse the other party.
However, the reason why the United Company grew so fast was really related to the fact that it dared to defy the Chinese Exclusion Act. The labor cost alone was reduced a lot. No matter who it was, most people had the weakness of being greedy for small profits. Being able to reduce labor costs a lot was itself a very big advantage.
It wasn't just Sheffield that did this. Carnegie became famous for using unions to raise the costs of other steel companies, squeezing them out and then suppressing his own company, which eventually led to a workers' strike.
Three years ago, Sheffield's United Company was also under attack from newspapers. However, unlike in recent months, the newspapers led by Hearst were the ones cursing him at that time. They criticized him for using Chinese workers and not giving other citizens the opportunity to work. Sheffield was not in his seventies or eighties, so of course he would not forget it so quickly.
"Do I have to speak for the Democrats through Hearst's newspaper? My media is not much bigger than his. And this is an assassination attempt on the president. I don't believe anyone in the Democratic Party will speak for him. Once his newspaper is implicated, what will happen to those who speak for him? To be honest, I have been waiting to merge Hearst and Prinzer's newspapers. This opportunity is too good to miss." Sheffield stood up with great interest. "It is indeed time to rectify the public opinion of the United States. Free speech also has a price. I have been scolded for several months. This matter cannot be forgotten."
In the field of newspaper media, it can be said that Sheffield has been dreaming of merging the newspapers of Prinz and Hearst in recent years, but no one has given him this opportunity. Newspaper media is different from other industries. If there is no suitable reason for forced purchase and sale, public opinion will not agree.
Now, the assassination of William McKinley has given Sheffield a very good opportunity. Moreover, he has also been a victim of public opinion violence in recent months. These night soil collectors have been slandering him for a long time without any evidence.
"Let's start now and teach these dung collectors a lesson." Gale said eagerly, "I've disliked them for a long time."
"Don't be in a hurry. Will the federal government make a statement? Now that the president is like this, the federal government has the most credibility. Wait until the federal government makes a statement, and then we will take action to get things done." Anyway, he hasn't been scolding for several months, and Sheffield has no shortage of time to wait for the right time to act.
Just as he said, William McKinley was assassinated, and the Republican leaders of both the Senate and the House of Representatives expressed their opinions, condemning the assassination of the president and believing that such assassination was an unforgivable crime. In any way, William McKinley was a good president and should not have fallen into the current situation where his life and death are uncertain.
William McKinley was widely loved because of the economic prosperity in recent years. After the federal government's statement, the president's current situation of life and death aroused widespread sympathy among the citizens, and criticism of the assassins continued. Public opinion has shifted from the boiling point at the beginning of this year to another direction, and the media newspapers that have been boiling for a year have begun to cool down.
But how could that work! The slave owner who prayed for the president to die soon could not wait to eat the blood of the president. This time he chose to speak in a Boston newspaper, which was not even his own newspaper, so that it would appear more neutral. The Boston Globe was founded in 1872 and is the newspaper with the largest circulation in Boston, USA. Boston was jointly invested by E. Jordan and 150,000 yuan.
In Boston, the Boston Globe is a very influential newspaper. The Boston Globe began to pay attention to this incident. It seems that they really hope to achieve their own authoritative purpose through reporting this incident and its follow-up, at least on the surface. As for the private transactions between slave owners and dung collectors, please do not talk nonsense without evidence.
The Boston Globe was the first to disclose the reprint of the call to assassinate the president found on the body of the assassin in the case of William McKinley, and then pointed out that this reprint was first reported in the San Francisco Examiner, a newspaper owned by media tycoon Hearst.
The Boston Globe's report caused a huge stir. Since the reprint of the assassination of the president was found on the murderer's body, it means that the murderer must have been influenced by this report and had the idea of assassinating the president. The police interrogation results also proved this motive, and then related accusations came in overwhelming numbers.
At this time Sheffield also began to use his own newspapers to criticize the so-called freedom of speech, which had been turned into sensational fake news without bottom line by some editors for the sake of sales. He also cited the example of the Spanish fleet landing in New York. Because the president was assassinated, the newspaper media in the United States exploded again, but they could no longer point fingers at Sheffield. This time the explosion required these dung collectors to digest it themselves, and they had to eat the shit that was blown up themselves.
This is the first time that the uncrowned kings have faced such doubts throughout the year, as they used to be the ones who questioned others.
To be honest, I only write three chapters a day, so it's too difficult to catch up.
(End of this chapter)
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