Page 113 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

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PACK JOURNALISM is a derogatory term used to describe media members
who cover the same beats, such as politics, and then report the same perspective
on a topic. The term is derogatory because it suggests lack of originality and
shallowness in reporting. Two factors motivate a pack journalist: a strong desire
to be competitive with peers and the desire to be seen as "on top" of a story
in the eyes or ears of the audience. Reporters sometimes are afraid to offer their
own perspective because editors will wonder why they reported the story dif-
ferently. The term was coined by Timothy Crouse, a Rolling Stone reporter, who
wrote the critically acclaimed book The Boys on the Bus. In the book, Crouse
reports his observations as part of the 1976 presidential press corps. (See also
Timothy Crouse.)

SOURCE: Larry J. Sabato, Feeding Frenzy, 1991.
Jacqueline Nash Gifford

PAINE, THOMAS (1737-1809) is affectionately known as the "poet of the
American Revolution" because of such works as Common Sense, which in 1776
articulated the reasons to seek independence from England, and for his Crisis
papers, the first of which in December 1776 rallied the rebels' cause with such
lines as: "These are the times that try men's souls," "Tyranny, like hell, is not
easily conquered," "Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods;
and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should
not be highly rated."
Paine's major contributions to the literature of political philosophy certainly
include The Rights of Man—his 1791 response to Edmund Burke's Reflections
on the French Revolution—and The Age of Reason, published in 1794.
Less well known is his first significant pamphlet, The Case of the Officers of
Excise, written in 1772, when Paine was still in his native England, to get