Reading outrage-provoking journalism was, for many, a substitute for meaningful action. One urban myth in New York magazine offices told of a well-to-do Alaskan who walked into an editor’s office, clamoring that the time had come for the people to rise up:
“Well!” replied the editor, “you certainly are a progressive, aren’t you?”
“Progressive!” the man cried. “Progressive! I tell you I’m a full-fledged insurgent. Why, man, I subscribe to thirteen magazines.”
– from “Citizen Reporters: S.S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine That Rewrote America.”
Roland Klose 