Do the Americans know more?

[chudmuskett]

Hi, just wondered if someone could clear something up for me. I have been doing a bit of newspaper research and have come to the conclusion that the Americans think they knew far more about this case, especially after the investigation ended than the Brits. Has anyone else found this? Why would this be?

[Magpie]

I think that the American's often took the advantage of the time delay to compile stories from all the London press, giving the impression of having more information. The British press rushed to publish, sometimes within hours of the murders--often they made stuff up on the spot. The American correspondent could take all the juiciest morsels from all available stories and mold them into a seemingly more authoritative narrative.

[JTRSickert]

Of course we know more! It's our job to know more than everyone else, or at least, to make the rest of you think we know more.

LOL I'm just kidding.

In regards to the Whitechapel murders though, I do think the British press seemed to be more "on the case" than any other major international newspaper. I believe the rest of them to be playing "catch up."

the only exception to this would be the American press coverage of Tumblety, who was mentioned very prominently in lots of American newspapers as a potential Jack the Ripper suspect, and yet there is hardly any mention of him in the British press, if at all.

[Chris]

Of course, one other factor is that a lot more American newspapers have been digitised than British ones, which tends to skew the results of online searches.