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206

Sacrifice of Public Confidence

unusual method. Nothing Webb's friends could say shook the bias from the news stories; he was condemned by the press even before the Grand Jury acted. Credulous and hopeful of still more startling disclosures, the newspapers printed every presentable accusation against Webb-and some not so presentable. Henry W. Taft, a New York lawyer, collected some of the newspaper headlines printed during the Grand Jury investigation. Here are a few excerpts

from them:

Strange Plot near Exposure in Webb Case. Plot Revealed as Webb Jury Plans Report. Webb Mystery near Solution, Arrest Close. Hidden Motive in Webb Mystery Near

Light. Development of Immense Importance May Come To-day. Sensation Promised in Report.

Webb was completely exonerated by the Grand Jury which was in session at the time these headlines were printed, their report concluding: "We, therefore, deem it our duty to say emphatically that all of these accusations are without the slightest foundation and we fully and completely exonerate Mr. Webb."

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IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM

MISTAKE? Yes, perhaps! But was it an honest mistake; and what of Webb, who had been represented for days as a criminal ready for the electric chair, as a fortune hunter, and even worse? The bare facts of his exoneration, printed in a less conspicuous place and in less space than the insinuations and irresponsible accusations, could not entirely wipe out the public impression that Webb was a criminal. The action of the newspapers in that case was irresponsible, unjust, and unfair, because they leaped at the conclusion that he was guilty, and they kept that impression alive day after day, when there were no new facts to justify the theory.

Another example of irresponsible journalism was the alleged exposé by an evening newspaper in New York City of the "real inside story" of the Wall Street

bomb explosion. A house-wrecking union and one of its officers were named in the story, which was displayed prominently on the first page, but the yarn collapsed so quickly that it is doubtful if any reputation was injured.

Mistakes of this character undermine public confidence in the press, and lead to that oft-repeated remark: "Don't believe anything you read in the newspapers." Indeed, it is not always safe to believe everything the first day, because in the present spirit of the press the editor prefers not to be "beaten" on anything, even on the story that may be disclosed to-morrow as a "fake."

In this mad rush for sensational stories, the newspapers have created a corps of dragoon reporters who stop at no obstacle. In any other business, agents using such dragoon methods would be punished for assault or disorderly conduct, but by mild methods of blackmail the newspapers have created a special class for themselves with the police in all cities and with law-enforcing agencies. An American reporter will commit acts in pursuit of a story or a picture that he would never dare try on any private mission, or on the work for any other organization. That is the true spirit of the dragoon-get a man out of bed by telephone at three o'clock in the morning, ask him about a breach of promise suit, and expect him to be cheerful.

The activities of the dragoon are not in harmony with those high ideals of the press so often written about in the editorial columns and spoken about at the editors' annual meetings, but so rarely attained. They are encouraged in their persecutions, at least tacitly, and more and more the reporter is telling in the news columns just what he did; he is becoming a character in the news story. It was formerly a rule of the newspaper office that this should not be done, but customs, rules, and men change rapidly, and to-morrow the dragoon may be a real crusader.

These dragoons hound everybody from the Prince of Wales to Harry K. That, and those who read the stories of tea

Hall-Mills murder case know how every person whose name was even remotely mentioned was hounded for weeks by reporters. A few excerpts from a story in the New York Times show how a man may be hounded by reporters, if he will permit himself to be:

Harry K. Thaw started last night for his home in Pittsburgh. He seemed fit and contented, though he had had little sleep, having been engaged until 4:30 o'clock in the morning in an effort to elude reporters who pursued him as far as White Plains. There

Thaw lost them. He
continued on, never-
theless, to a point in
Connecticut and did
not get back to New
York and bed until 6
o'clock. . . . Thaw
was frank in express-
ing his displeasure at
being followed wher-
ever he went. . .
It was about mid-
night when Thaw and
his bodyguard drove
up to the Market
Street Station of the
Pennsylvania Rail-
road in Newark, tick-
ets in hand, to board a
train for Philadelphia.

with Thaw could not have been turned earlier to the oil-lease scandals, where a great public service might have been rendered and much prestige and circulation won.

Just how far the dragoons have gone in their pursuit of spice and savor, even in interviewing women, was illustrated recently in a story in the New York Tribune about a Follies girl who became entangled with a well-known comedian:

The Function of the Newspaper

The newspaper is, and should be, a private institution. Only as a private institution can it have the free initiative, the independence, and the enterprise essential to its largest and best development. As a private property it should sustain itself and grow from its own resources. That is to say, it should not be dependent upon any revenues that it does not itself create through the legitimate and honest business of its publication. And if, so conducted, it produces a profit, it is fully entitled to the reward of its enterprise, and becomes more capable as an instrument of public service.

Whatever the material considerations, the newspaper is a private institution conducted for public ends. Its task is to supply the public with information, and with opinion about the information; and information and opinion are essential to all public activities, particularly so in a democracy. Wipe out the newspapers and the people would grope in the darkness for lack of knowledge of what is going on in the community, the state, or the nation.-E. Lansing Ray, publisher, St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

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A brief interview was had through the cabin door while a reporter held it ajar with his foot, and Miss Wilson, in her bare feet and pink nightdress, stood ready to lock herself in again.

It is little wonder that there is a movement for licensing newspapermen in their respective states; that the Chicago Tribune itself suggests legislation for a curb on crime publicity pending Grand Jury action; and that the public says:" Don't believe what you read in the newspapers." But legislation is not needed; a little common sense would cure these evils.

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In fact, there are many excuses for American newspapers. Trials are longer in this country, and our lax system of administering justice permits newspapers to take liberties in comment and news presentation which would call forth heavy fines in England. Our newspapers do, however, take many liberties without thinking of the rights of the individuals concerned. If the press is sincere in its recent codification of ethics it should seek remedies, not excuses.

THE FUNCTION OF THE PRESS

APRESS mirror its it is

not a worthy press. Therefore, we must have a larger proportion of crime news, because we have more crime than other countries have. Moreover, a press must meet the wishes of its public, but the tendency in this country is to underestimate the intelligence and taste of the newspaper reading public and then to over upply it with inferior and sensational

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The newspaper I cher varis, should print the news thats of pinterest, of any that is it to print, including pourly the news that contains instructive and constructive formation. but not excluding news that is mere entertainment or mere response to the innate demand for the

tramand and the abnormal, unless it is published for a special class. The first essential of a newspaper is that it be interesting. Unless it is it w have few readers, and without readers it has no public value.

But it must acquire the confidence of its readers if it is to retain them and have any influence upon them. That confidence can only be obtained by the general reliability of the news and opinion it supplies. Truth in the news is the most difficult of all accomplishments, nor is it easy to maintain accuracy and fairness in the expression of opinion, but the newspaper that makes the nearest approach to truth at all times lays the strongest foundation of power and of permanence, and is the best agency of public service.

It is regrettable but true that in recent years the American newspaper has taken no real step toward the development of a conscience or of a feeling of responsibility, for the ultimate result or effect of much the news it prints. In this respect it seeds, instead, that the press is retrogrest pe

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and that its code almost universally seems to be to print the news and let the consequences fall where they may. The newspapers have plenty of independence, without the stabilizing effect of a realization that what they say and the way they say it in their news stories, and particularly in stories of human error, has an incalculable effect upon the moral thought of the nation. Frankness is one thing, prurience another.

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cabin door with his foot, and thus forcing an interview with the woman inside, somewhere in his editorial rooms hangs this beautiful sentiment from the code of ethics:

A newspaper should not invade private rights or feelings without sure warrant of public right as distinguished from public curiosity.

The Function of the Newspaper

It is no defense of our method of handling the sensational crime news to say that as much was printed on the FiskStokes murder case a half century ago as on the Hall-Mills murder case, or as much on the Beecher-Tilden case

A free newspaper is an enterprise that is privately operated and performs a public function. It is dependent upon the good will of the people for its support. Their constitutions protect its freedom and in the exercise of its freedom it is accountable to their laws and by their laws is charged with a public duty.

To find the facts, to publish the facts, is its primary function, its constant responsibility, and its imperative duty. To interpret the facts, to stimulate thought about them, to provoke discussion, to reflect opinion, to direct opinion, to organize opinion-all these things a free press must strive to do in addition, if it would be a teacher, an interpreter, and a leader of the free men it was freed to serve.

But the interpretation offered, the thought stimulated, the discussion provoked, the opinion reflected, directed, or organized, must upon each occasion possess a foundation of fact, not of falsehood, and not of opinion or emotion dressed up to pass as fact.James T. Williams, Jr., editor of the Boston Transcript, in the Quill, official organ of Sigma Delta Chi, honorary journalism fraternity,

A newspaper cannot escape conviction of insincerity if, while professing high moral purpose, it supplies incentives to base conduct, such as are to be found in details of crime aná vice, publication of which is not demonstrably for the general good. Lacking authority to enforce its canons, the journalism here represented can but express the hope that deliberate pandering to vicious instincts will encounter effective public disapproval or yield to the influence of a preponderant professional condemnation.

That section reads well, but the truth is that there is as yet no "preponderant professional condemnation" or "effective public disapproval." The dragoons of the press still ride wild, flaunting the ethics of their profession—if, indeed, the business can be called a profession—and occasionally even flaunting the law. While one dragoon is blocking a ship's

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as upon the Stillman case. If the press is to apologize for its present sins by matching them with the follies of the past, then the standards of journalism are already on the way down hill and, if this philosophy is to prevail, a half century hence we may have a debased and debauched press that has lost all public

respect and confidence and all power of accomplishing any good work for the public welfare.

The press of this country needs a new point of view, especially upon its responsibilities. Arrogantly it expresses the opinion that it is the most powerful force in the creation of a public opinion, and with that high conception of its importance it immediately proceeds to fulfill its recognized functions by printing trivialities and banalities, and by going to every extreme to stimulate, and then to satiate public curiosity.

The main part of the local news-gathering machines of most of our newspapers,

210

News Useful and Sensational

is that assigned to the task of gathering the news of human error, or sensational news. Police reporters outnumber those of any other class on most newspapers, except on the larger metropolitan newspapers, where the largest number of reporters do any sort of general reporting, including stories of human error. It is true that a large proportion of local news does originate at those two universal public institutions, the police station and the police court, but it is also true that news is not sought with such avidity in other places where the news is not of such melodramatic interest. Many of the larger newspapers, of course, do make a thorough attempt to get all classes of news, but the smaller and weaker newspapers retain their police reporters after all others have been dropped.

In nearly every large city, however, at least one newspaper is trying its best to present all classes of news, and has supplemented the archaic police reporter system with a staff of men who hunt other news of great public interest. These newspapers excel in the presentation of business news. In a recent address to a group of London journalists, L.C.M.S. Amery, for many years a member of the staff of the London Times, pointed out the extraordinary interest displayed by the American press in business and financial news, an interest that is much more noticeable to a foreigner, because our newspapers are far ahead of most other countries in the presentation of news useful to business. Even the sensational press, except the tabloids, are forced by the public demand to print some of this class of news and information.

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Indeed, the majority of our newspapers make honest and sincere efforts to be useful. In the case of radio news, for instance, our newspapers printed columns every day long before the radio advertisers entered their columns to any great extent. They may be wrong in their judgment at times, but they make every effort to surfeit the public appetite. In the case of useful news, there is no harm in surfeiting this appetitite; in the case of sensational news of human error, there is a menace in surfeiting this appetite, and they are more likely to go to an extreme on this emotional news than on any other. One newspaper fears to stop before the others.

OF VALUE TO THE COMMUNITY

NE newspaper making a notable ef

fort to be useful in its community is the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which represents the highest type of journalistic ideals and editorship. E. C. Hopwood, editor of the Plain Dealer, had a careful record made of the first page stories printed in his newspaper last January and the figures were:

Foreign affairs, 21 articles; national government, 28 articles; city government—we had just started out under a just started out under a new charter-34 articles; crime, 16 articles; national politics, 12; accidents, 8; general news not classified further, but not pertaining to any of the preceding classes, 89 articles. Crime and accident, the so-called destructive news, thus obtained a footing on page 1 with 24 articles, as compared with a total of 184 constructive

The Plain

That is ideal and unusual. Dealer is the only morning newspaper in Cleveland. It could supply any kind of paper it wanted. It chooses to supply a newspaper clean in appearance, expression, and thought, and does not suffer because of its ideals. It is an outstanding example of a newspaper which does not underestimate the intelligence and tastes of its reading public.

In the sadly neglected field of educational news the Plain Dealer is an example. In his examination of his group of typical newspapers, Mr. Riis found that less than 1 per cent. of the total

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