NEWSPAPERS, PROTEST, ORIENTALISM AND MURDER

Where to start with the 4^th December? Two newspapers published their first editions on this day ninety years and 5437 miles apart. On the 4^th December 1791 the first edition of The Observer, the world’s first Sunday newspaper, was published, and on the 4^th December 1881, the first edition of the Los Angeles Times was published.

The first issue of The Observer was published by W.S. Bourne. Believing that the paper would be a means of wealth, Bourne instead soon found himself facing debts of nearly £1,600. Though early editions purported editorial independence, Bourne attempted to cut his losses and sell the title to the government. When this failed, Bourne's brother (a wealthy businessman) made an offer to the government, which also refused to buy the paper but agreed to subsidise it in return for influence over its editorial content. As a result, the paper soon took a strong line against radicals such as Thomas Paine, Francis Burdett and Joseph Priestley. So much for independence. There have only been fifteen editors of the paper since Bourne.

The Los Angeles Times was first published as the Los Angeles Daily Times under the direction of Nathan Cole Jr. and Thomas Gardiner. It was printed at the Mirror printing plant, owned by Jesse Yarnell and T.J. Caystile. Unable to pay the printing bill, Cole and Gardiner turned the paper over to the Mirror Company. In the meantime, S.J. Mathes had joined the firm, and it was at his insistence that the Times continued publication. In July 1882, Harrison Gray Otis moved from Santa Barbara to become the paper's editor. Otis made the Times a financial success. Since 1982 thirty-two Pulitzer Prizes have been awarded to Los Angeles Times writers, editors, photographers and cartoonists.

On 4th December 2005, tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protested for democracy and called on the Government to allow universal and equal suffrage. The protesters demanded the right to directly elect the Chief Executive and all the seats of the Legislative Council. They also urged the government to abolish the appointed seats of the district councils. Organised by the Civil Human Rights Front and pro-democracy lawmakers, the protest began at the football pitches in the Victoria Park. The march, from the park towards the Central Government Offices in Central, started at 3 p.m. There were several estimates of the crowd turnout ranging from 63,000 to over 250,000

Advertisement on Ming Pao calling for protesters. 

Translation: We will create history today. 

Go to Victoria Park, fight for universal suffrage. 

See you at three. (Large, stylised) Universal Suffrage. 

Signed: the 25 pro-democracy LegCo members

Lord Bentinck

On the 4^th December 1829, in the face of fierce local opposition, British governor Lord William Bentinck issues a regulation declaring that all who abet sati in India are guilty of culpable homicide. Bentinck also took steps to suppress other Indian customs, which the British viewed as barbaric. Although his reforms met little resistance among native Indians at the time, it has been argued that they brought on dissatisfaction, which ultimately led to the great mutiny of 1857. There was a lot more to British Colonial measures and attitudes in India which led to the Mutiny. Indeed, much of post-colonial criticism arises out of the history of British and French colonial ‘measures’ abroad. Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) is a specific exposé of the Eurocentric universalism which takes for granted both the superiority of what is European or Western, and the inferiority of what is not.

Edward Said

And on an even more outrageous note, on the 4^th December 1969, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, members of the Black Panther Party, were shot and killed in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers including FBI agents. No one was charged with their murder.

Hampton

Clark