Literary journalism is criticized as the bad child of the "modern era of media and advertising exaggerations" (Yagoda, "In"). But, looking back in time, there are many examples of what is now called literary journalism, or what blurs the line between fact and fiction. What has changed "...is not the practice of literary journalism but expectations about truth" ("In"). In Postmodern American Fiction, the editors point out that Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" (1965) illustrates how the postmodern inclination to blur the line between standard journalism and fiction could itself create a new level of narrative tension within the limits of the novel traditional" (125). According to Yagoda, however, this is not a new trend. Yagoda cites Daniel Defoe's 1722 novel, A Journal of the Plague Year. It was supposedly the account of a resident of London during the Great Plague, 1664 -1665. Defoe was four years old to create the fictional diary, making the story a little more personal ("In"). Peloponnese, the author writes: "As regards the speeches made before or during the war, it was difficult for me, and for others who reported them to me, to remember the exact words. I therefore put their own feelings into the mouths of each speaker of the occasion, expressed as I thought he would express them" ("In"). These two examples, and there are many more that could be added. this list shows that literary journalism is not new, nor is it the product of media hype. What's new is how sincere the author is about his inventions. One of the first things a journalism student learns is to attribute everything that is not a known fact. With the publication of In Cold Blood, Capote was praised for his "... meticulous accuracy and total memory, which obviated the necessity of not taking notes" ("In"). Capote used his journalistic skills, and since he didn't attribute anything to anyone, the story became fiction. It was the beginning of many similar books written by journalists. The list includes Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra, The Last Brother by Joe McGinniss, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (which is considered nonfiction even though the author claimed to have invented some conversations and messed up the chronology).