It was probably Thursday. I don't always listen to the podcasts on the day that
they download, and they download several hours after the actually program was
broadcast.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2018 3:30 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Nellie Bly, America's greatest Female Journalist
I'm a big fan of Nomi Prinz, and heard some discussion on Flashpoints earlier
this week...Monday? Tuesday? Wednesday?...my memory is...not what it used to be.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/27/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
KPFA is, once again, doing fund raising so Flashpoints is airing
pieces of audio and video that people can get if they contribute to
the station. Among these is a fantastic speech by Nomi Prinz about
central banks and how they function. She wrote a book about this and
talked about the book in Berkley to an audience for KPFA. You listen
to the excerpt and realize how we are all played and manipulated by
the banking system and you hear the history, how J.P. Morgan began it
all and what his motives were. Money, power, it wins every time.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2018 11:44 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Nellie Bly, America's greatest Female
Journalist
Yes. Joe posted two articles, that I recall. Besides the one in
which she becomes a mental patient, he posted one about her
experiences as a worker in a box manufacturing company.
I've read other articles by Nellie Bly, one that comes to mind dealt
with the lack of child labor laws, and the ten hour days small
children were putting in.
But we tend to forget just how hard times were. We've been schmoozed
by the Corporate Media into believing that our troubles are caused by
Socialists and Communists, instead of the control of our government by
Corporations.
We actually sing about "The Good Old Days", when in truth they never
existed...for working class Americans(remember, I include what we
still call the Middle Class).
The years between the Second World War and 1970, were about the best
30 years working class Americans ever had. It took FDR the best part
of ten years to force the banks and Wall Street to let loose of some
of their control, and wealth. The War actually played a major role in
creating jobs, and the demand for workers helped push up wages. But it was
short lived.
With the end of the war, corporate America began to reel in all the
dollars and control they had "lost".
Although, due to its shortsightedness and greed, corporate Capitalism
is doomed to implode. And with it, all the wealth that has been taken
from the people will also disappear as if it never existed. Maybe
what we need to do is to organize a boycott against commercial TV,
radio and magazines. Just forcing ourselves to break away from the
constant hammering by the Corporate Media might help us come back to our
senses.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/27/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
That's an incredible story. I had that article of her's about her
undercover work in the mental hospital on my computer for years. It
was a very long article and I had to keep coming back to it and
finding my place. I think Joe originally posted it. At any rate, it
was quite something.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2018 10:35 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Nellie Bly, America's greatest Female
Journalist
Recently I ran across an article about Nellie Bly. I remembered Joe
posted several articles, a few years ago, detailing some of Nellie
Bly's undercover work, and the terrible conditions that so many
working class Americans lived under back 100 plus years ago. Think
times are getting tough today? Well, you're right! But unless we,
the working class people, do not turn it around, America will slip
back to those Bad Old Days. Sadly, what Nellie Bly reported on has
been the Norm for most Americans. Only the Wealthy, Privilaged
Americans remember "the good old days". For most of us and our
parents and grandparents, there were only hard times.
Carl Jarvis
*****
Nellie Bly, 1864-1922
Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran on May 5, 1864 in the town
of Cochran's Mills, Pennsylvania. The town was named for her father,
Judge Michael Cochran. Early in life, Elizabeth earned the nickname
"Pink" because her mother routinely dressed her in that color. Judge
Cochran passed away when Elizabeth was just six. Elizabeth's mother,
Mary Jane, would re-marry three years later to a man who was very
abusive, forcing her to go through the tortuous process of divorce.
This left the family on very hard times.
Elizabeth attended Indiana Normal in hopes of becoming a teacher.
However, she could not afford tuition and spent only one semester at
the school.
In 1880, Mary Jane moved her family to Pittsburgh. Elizabeth assisted
her mother with duties around their house which they had opened to
boarders. In January of 1885, Nellie read an editorial in The
Pittsburgh Dispatch entitled "What Girls Are Good For." The article
admonished women for even attempting to have an education or career,
suggesting they should stray no further than the home. This
infuriated Elizabeth to the point of writing a scathing reply that
she signed "Little Orphan Girl." Dispatch editor George Madden was so
impressed by the reply, he placed an ad for the Little Orphan Girl to
visit the newspaper.
When Elizabeth introduced herself to Madden, the editor offered her
the opportunity to write a rebuttal piece to be published. Elizabeth
went home and wrote her first newspaper article "The Girl Puzzle."
Impressed again, Madden offered Elizabeth a full-time job writing
under the name Nellie Bly (the title of a popular song by Stephen
Foster).
At the time women who worked at newspapers almost always wrote
articles on gardening, fashion or society. Nellie Bly eschewed these
topics for hard pressing stories on the poor and oppressed. Drawing
from her mother's experience, she wrote on the inherent disadvantages
women had in divorce proceedings. She also wrote numerous articles on
the lives of poor women who worked in Pittsburgh's bottle factories.
Nellie's articles fascinated readers, but drew criticism from the
business community. When companies threatened to pull advertising
from the Dispatch because of her articles, Nellie was assigned to a
gardening story. When she turned in the article, she included her
resignation.
Nellie's next adventure was a six month trip to Mexico. She wrote of
her travels to Madden, who published her reports in the Dispatch.
However, what started
out as a travelogue soon turned into a scathing review of the Mexican
government. When she reported on President Porfirio Diaz imprisoning
a journalist for criticizing the government, Nellie soon found
herself threatened with arrest and left the country. Her accounts
would later be collected in the book Six Months In Mexico.
Back in the United States, Nellie decided that her next destination
would be New York City. In 1887, Nellie arrived in New York hoping to
land a job at a major newspaper, but none was offered. After four
months of rejection, and near penniless, she talked her way into the
office of John Cockerill, managing editor of the Joseph Pulitzer
newspaper The New York World.
Determined not to leave without work, Nellie was eventually assigned
to go under-cover as a patient in the notorious asylum on Blackwell's
Island and report first-hand on her experience.
Nellie convinced both doctors and judges that she was insane, and was
committed to the asylum. She endured filthy conditions, rotten food
and physical abuse from doctors and nurses for ten days before a
World agent rescued her. Nellie's articles "Behind Asylum Bars" and
"Inside The Mad-House" created an uproar in New York. After further
investigations were launched, New York officials provided more money
and a change in care for the people at the asylum.
Nellie Bly had arrived.
Nellie would spend the next several years writing articles for The World.
She pioneered the field of investigative journalism. Often going
under-cover, she exposed crooked lobbyists in government, tracked the
plight of unwanted babies, reported on the conditions for poor
workers in box-making factories and much more. Nellie was becoming so
popular, The World would often use her name in the story's headline!
People couldn't wait to see what Nellie Bly was up to next.
Nellie's most famous story would begin in 1889. She proposed to
travel around the world faster than Jules Verne's character Phileas
Fogg in Around The World In Eighty Days. Editors at The World were
wary of the idea.
Women didn't travel without escorts, they carried too much baggage.
Never one to be denied,
Nellie Bly stepped onto the ocean liner Augusta Victoria by herself
on November 14, 1889 carrying only two small satchels.
Nellie traveled the world heading east from New York. Her journey
took her from England to Egypt, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong Kong, and
Japan before heading back to the United States. During a stop in
France, Nellie got to meet Jules Verne himself, who encouraged her to
break his own - fictional - record! In the meantime, to keep interest
in Nellie's trip alive, The World promoted a hugely popular guessing
game for her arrival time.
Nellie would step back on to American soil in San Francisco. She then
boarded a train that took her across the country. On January 25,
1890, Nellie Bly arrived back at her starting point; seventy-two
days, six hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds after her
departure. Nellie was now a hugely popular international celebrity.
However, to her surprise, The World did not offer Nellie a bonus
despite the increase in circulation she had created. Upset over the
sleight, Nellie Bly resigned from the newspaper.
Though unemployed, Nellie was not short of opportunities. Her image
graced trading cards, board games and numerous other products. She
went on lecture tours and wrote Nellie Bly's Book: Around The World
In Seventy-Two Days.
Unfortunately, during this time, her brother Charles died, and Nellie
began taking care of his wife and two children.
In 1893, a new editor at The World convinced Nellie to come back. On
September 17th, the headline "Nellie Bly Again" appeared on the front
page of The World. For the next three years, Nellie was back with
articles about police corruption, the violent Pullman labor strike
and an interview with noted suffragist Susan B. Anthony among others.
In 1895, Nellie surprised everyone by marrying noted industrialist
Robert Seaman, and by 1896 she had stopped writing for The World.
Robert Seaman was
owner of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company which made milk cans,
barrels and other steel products. As the marriage progressed, Nellie
became more and more involved with the company. She even patented a
milk can of her own design. When Robert died in 1904, Nellie (as
Elizabeth Cochrane
Seaman) took over
the company and became the world's leading female industrialist.
Unfortunately by 1914, poor management and fraud within the company
forced her into bankruptcy.
That same year saw Nellie travel to Europe to visit a friend in
Austria. It also saw the outbreak of World War 1. Nellie got in
contact with former World editor Arthur Brisbane who now worked at
the Hearst newspaper The New York Evening Journal and made
arrangements to become a journalist once again. Nellie Bly was
America's first female war correspondent, writing articles on her
experiences at the war's front lines. What had started as a vacation
turned into a five year tour of duty.
By 1919, Nellie was back in New York and writing regularly for The
Evening Journal. She had her own column and dispensed advice as well
as her opinion on topics of the day. She helped poor women find jobs
and raised money to aid widows, children and others who faced hard times.
Nellie Bly passed away on January 27, 1922 from pneumonia, having
continued to write her column up until her death. The next day, The
Evening Journal carried a tribute to the pioneering reporter,
declaring Nellie Bly "The Best Reporter In America."