http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_riot_of_1861

Abraham Lincoln received only 1,100 of more than 30,000 votes cast for president in 1860. One regiment of newly called up Union troops came through Baltimore; however, anti-Union forces were too disorganized and surprised to do anything about it. When the next regiment came on April 19, however, they were ready.

On April 19, the Union's Sixth Massachusetts Regiment[3] was traveling south to Washington, D.C. through Baltimore. At that time, there was no direct rail connection between the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad's President Street Station and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Camden Station (ten blocks to the west) due to ordinances prohibiting the use of steam locomotives in the inner city and the lack of union stations at the time. Rail cars that transferred between the two stations had to be pulled by horses along Pratt Street.

As the regiment transferred between stations, a mob of secessionists and Southern sympathizers attacked the train cars and blocked the route. When it became apparent that they could travel by horse no further, the troops got out of the cars and marched in formation through the city. However, the mob followed the soldiers, breaking store windows and causing damage until they finally blocked the soldiers. The mob began throwing paving stones and bricks at the troops. Panicked by the situation, several soldiers fired into the mob, and chaos immediately ensued as a giant brawl began between the soldiers, the violent mob, and the Baltimore police. In the end, the soldiers got to the Camden Station, and the police were able to block the crowd from them. The regiment had left behind much of their equipment, including their marching band's instruments.

[...]

Lincoln rerouted troops through Union-friendly Annapolis at first. Once enough troops had made it to Washington, D.C. to defend the capital, Lincoln resolved to end the problems in Baltimore and restore the rail connection. On May 13, the Union army entered Baltimore, occupied the city, and declared martial law. The mayor, city council, and police commissioner, who were pro-South and seemingly incompetent at maintaining order in the situation, were arrested and imprisoned at Fort McHenry.

[...]

Lincoln rerouted troops through Union-friendly Annapolis at first. Once enough troops had made it to Washington, D.C. to defend the capital, Lincoln resolved to end the problems in Baltimore and restore the rail connection. On May 13, the Union army entered Baltimore, occupied the city, and declared martial law. The mayor, city council, and police commissioner, who were pro-South and seemingly incompetent at maintaining order in the situation, were arrested and imprisoned at Fort McHenry.

[...]

Some Southerners reacted with hostility to the battle; James Ryder Randall, a teacher in Louisiana but a native Marylander who had lost a friend in the riots, wrote "Maryland, My Maryland" for the Southern cause in response to the riots. The poem was later set to music popular in the South, and referred to the riots with lines such as

"Avenge the patriotic gore
That flecked the streets of Baltimore."

In 1939, that became Maryland's official state song.

__________

And it still is.

(sung to the jolly old tune of "Oh Tannenbaum")

You've made some excellent points. Here's some more of what I wrote on Cocktailhag's blog to explain why faux journalists cling fervently to the rationalized belief they are objective reporters:

It is amazing how the myth that a reporter can be objective persists to this day and has caused Todd to make such an embarrassing explanation of his reasoning during the Greenwald interview. The main motivation for faux journalists to believe this myth is that it relieves the burden of taking responsibility for the reporting and the consequences the report creates. That directly contradicts the reason for an investigation into the truth so that the readers/viewers will be better informed to make their judgments. A true reporter strives to take responsibility so there will be meaningful consequences. A faux journalist believes what the reader/viewer concludes is their responsibility not mine. All I simply did was provide “objective” information. The sources are fully at fault, not me.

This strong desire to escape responsibility leads to the incredible rationalization that a reporter is a machine who can ignore all of life’s experience and learning. Every thought and decision is made through ones’ culture and life lived and it enters into all aspects of an investigation into the truth. Journalists are not scientists with the ability to conduct and verify their and others’ experiments to establish scientific facts. Journalists work with subjective sources and subjective thinking. Only through recognizing this can a journalist have any chance to find the elusive truth that in itself is subjective and open to much interpretation.

A journalist does work with and report facts. There are some aspects of science when Todd is analyzing voter polls and election results. However, he is providing an opinion on what he sees in the facts. When Todd is talking to his political Beltway sources, I’m sure he recognizes that each source has a different objective and is far from objective. Yet when it comes to American government torture, he becomes a stenographer and totally ignores the consequences of those who we tortured and murdered by saying he must view things at 30,000 feet because at ground level he can’t see the forest for the trees and he must recognize political realities. He does not want to believe that he and his colleagues are partially responsible that we are still torturing, renditioning and probably killing detainees because we have allowed a president to break national and international law and put our rule of law in jeopardy. He and his faux journalist colleagues don’t want to believe that they could have and did not prevent or at least try extremely hard to prevent the Iraq invasion and the millions who have suffered or died.

True journalists take full responsibility for what sources they talk to, whether they will provide the cover of anonymity, how much they will strive to verify what they are being told and what should and should not be reported. They should have a deep pain in their gut when their reporting fails to bring the change they desire and not blame anyone but themselves.

There is no question that owners/publishers desire to make money as the overriding goal has made true journalism much harder. So too has the advent of 24/7 reporting and the desire to be first, right or wrong. What escapes me as a human being is how when the fourth/fifth estate role of journalism is more important than ever to the well being of our nation and the world, how faux journalists and selfish politicians can sleep well at night.