THOUGHTS ON
Today, we often encounter monsters throughout various forms of popular fiction. Bizarre and terrifying creatures fill our movies, games, books and television shows. So common are these images that we have become accustomed to viewing monsters as wholly fictitious entities. Accordingly, such fabled beasts have begun to lose their hold. We do not fear them, as we might a bear, shark, alligator or other predator of the animal kingdom. However, there was a time, not so long ago, when the line between fact and fiction was not so clearly drawn.
We frequently take for granted the information at our disposal. Likewise, we overlook the customarily distinctions that different forms of media present. If we want to keep updated on world events we turn to the news to do so. Similarly, if we wish to be entertained, we watch a movie, to learn read a book, or get help watch an instructional video. But in days gone by, the newspaper was the singular place for news, entertainment, information, etc. Oftentimes, factual accounts would be found on the same page detailing material of the tabloid sort. It was in this unique admixture of fact and fantasy that spawn a parade of newspaper monsters.
With the ever growing need to increase sales, some reporters demonstrate few qualms with stretching the truth or not exercising discretion. Such conditions produced perhaps the greatest pieces of journalistic fiction ever devised. Extraordinary creatures of the land, air and sea graced the black-and-white printed landscapes of pure imagination. More often than none, such stories detailed hunting parties organized to thwart some livestock or dog-eating monster. Typically, such beastly creations drew from a combination of various animals complete with wings, horns, claws, scales, etc. Sometimes the monster reported was a creature from another age such as a terrifying dinosaur or extinct giant bird. Still, other monsters were of the more believable sort. As one reporter so aptly put it:
“This is the time of year when news items grow very scarce and the newspaper man who is not all opinion is rescued from filling his editorial page with base ball biographical plate matter by the kind Kansas man who opportunely find snakes with legs, rabbits with horns and three-eyed calves.”
But one should not criticize such writers too harshly. For in the time before instant communication, air travel and a ready stream of information, checking sources was no easy task. If news was difficult to come by, the difference between printing a story or not could mean a paycheck or the “good bye.”
So thickly did the facts get blurred, at times, it was small wonder why readers really thought, “What if?” If some strange, cat-clawed, bear-footed beast-man was really lurking “out there somewhere” would it not be better to keep informed about it? After all, one is always better safe than sorry in any case.