Birth of the Foreign Correspondent

Journalism was not born in one day. Its origin is linked not so much to curious, inquisitive, comunicative and talkative (or writative) people, but rather more to party politics, secret agents and information services, espionage, political surveillance and the intrigues of the powerful. Before El Confidencial, there were, for real, confidential reports, confidential reporters, and information services for the State, for the elites and for burgeoning political parties. There is still today a continuity between the secret services and the Press, and secret reports which may be leaked or made public if necessary. Such reporters may sometimes appear to be neutral observers, but their reports are supported by the political interests they are meant to benefit in the last instance. Information is power, and power needs the best information available—through information services and later through the press, the powerful will control public opinion, public discourse, and gossip (the social networks of the age, regardless of platform). Ben Jonson wrote what is perhaps the first play on journalism and the information market, The Staple of News (1626), because he was familiar with the intrigues around the court involving the control and manipulation of information.  That was in the early 17th c.; in this passage from Lytton Strachey's Elizabeth and Essex (1928) the author describes the early information services and the reporter network developed in the Elizabethan age by the ambitious Earl of Essex, with the help of Anthony and Francis Bacon, in an information war against the ministers William Cecil (Lord Burghley), his son Robert Cecil, and their associates:

There it was that a great design was planned and carried into execution. The Cecils were to be beaten on their own chosen ground. The control of foreign affairs—where Burghley had ruled supreme for more than a generation—was to be taken from them; their information was to be proved inaccurate, and the policy that was based on it confuted and reversed. Anthony had no doubt that this could be done. He had travelled for years on the Continent; he had friends everywhere; he had studied the conditions of foreign States, the intricacies of foreign diplomacy, with all the energy of his acute and restless mind. If his knowledge and intelligence were supported by the position and the wealth of Essex, the combination would prove irresistible. And Essex did not hesitate; he threw himself into the scheme with all his enthusiasm. A vast correspondence began. Emissaries were sent out, at the Earl's expense, all over Europe, and letters poured in, from Scotland, France, Holland, Italy, Spain, Bohemia, with elaborate daily reports of the sayings of princes, the movements of armies, and the whole complex development of international intrigue. Anthony Bacon sat at the centre, receiving, digesting, and exchanging news. The work grew and grew, and before long, such was the multiplicity of business, he had four young secretaries to help him, among whom were the ingenious Henry Wotton and the cynical Henry Cuffe. The Queen soon perceived that Essex knew what he was talking about, when there was a discussion on foreign affairs. She read his memoranda, she listened to his recommendations; and the Cecils found, more than once, that their carefully collected intelligence was ignored. Eventually a strange situation arose, characteristic of that double-faced age. Essex almost attained the position of an alternative Foreign Secretary. Various ambassadors—Thomas Bodley was one—came under his influence, and, while corresponding officially with Burghley, sent at the same time parellel and more confidencial communications to Anthony Bacon. If the gain to the public service was doubtful, the gain to Essex was clear; and the Cecils, when they got wind of what was happening, began to realise that they must reckon seriously with the house in the Strand.

Some Early Periodicals and Newspapers

 

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