conclusion

Journalism has never been the bastion of unbiased truth that it often claims to be.  We can see from these differing accounts of the events in Wilmington in 1898 that bias generally accompanies the written word.  It is clear that in their news reporting, both Raleigh’s News and Observer and Richmond’s Planet wrote with an agenda.  Whether it was the use of inflammatory rhetoric, the publication of slanted articles or the conscious omission of facts, each of the articles showed the editor’s bias in writing and publishing the story.