The Role of the Media in the American Conquest of the Philip

            It was the link between the extension of democracy and the.
             westward march that made it easier for Americans to view.
             innocently their bloddy conquest of the Philippines as a.
             continuation of the western expansino of democracy (Miller 3).
             Archibald Paton Thornton .
             As Stuart Creighton Miller points out in his book Benevolent Assimilation, many.
             Americans felt that they were doing the Filipinos a favor, so to speak by stepping in to colonize.
             the Philippine nation. American leaders and the public (both anti-imperialists and imperialists).
             had the assumption that "Filipinios were not capable of governing themselves" (15). This.
             assumption and sense of innocence was also fueled by the media during that time as Christopher.
             Vaughan suggests in his article; "The "Discovery" of the Philipines by the US Press 1898-1902".
             in The Historian. Vaughan dicussess the element of the newly emerging importance of the media.
             around this time and the implications that the press may have played in shaping the opinions of.
             American citizens at this time. While "U.S. readers obtained widely varying views of the.
             Philippines depending on their locale and reading habits, there was a remarkable degree of.
             thematic similarity in the press, discussion of the Philippines and its people" (Vaughan 303). .
             Throughout the book, Miller points to a variety of news sources which examine the.
             American sentiment of the Philippine War; using such phrases as "waking up to the opporutnities.
             the war brought at a moment when the immense increase of our manufacuturing capacity has.
             rendered foreign markets necessary for us" (16) from an editorial in Inter-Ocean to "one way of.
             opening up a market is to conquer it" (17) from the Railway Road. These stories carried over to.
             the mentality of the American government and the public; that what was going on in the.
             Philippines was merely an extension of domestic expansionism and capitalism and that it was.