November 5
Podcasts
None but all of us
A century-old editorial asks what citizens owe one another when journalists expose wrongdoing and those in power fail to act.
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In January 1903, McClure’s Magazine published three investigations in one issue. Ida Tarbell wrote about Standard Oil, Lincoln Steffens exposed corruption in Minneapolis city government, and Ray Stannard Baker reported on the coal strike. Editor S.S. McClure saw a question running through all three stories. Who would uphold the law when so many people were willing to break it or let it be broken?
In Monday’s “This Matters,” Bill Britt revisits McClure’s answer: “There is no one left. None but all of us.” The episode asks what happens after a free press brings wrongdoing to light, and what it takes for ordinary people to turn public knowledge into public action.
Watch “None but all of us” above. Subscribe to “This Matters with Bill Britt” on YouTube, Spotify, Apple or anywhere you get your podcasts.