The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1859-06-18
WHAT IS NEWSPAPER. AND WHAT
SHALLI PRINT.

WHAT Is A NEWSPAPER. AND WHAT
SHALL TPRINT.
! There is genuine ring of the true COM
mon sense metal in the following article,
taken from the Springfield Republican Of
! the 9th instant; and those who plume them
selves on what they are weak enough to BE-.
! lieve is a virtue whi dacs no: recognize
the force Of the reasoning it contains, ought
to read it, and discover that they are not 80
amazingly correct as they assume to be-
There is method, principle in jour.
naiism, that some of those who follow it,
and many OF the reading public, find it hard
to understand, and still harder to admit
The man who sets up to print public news
paper, has no right to control its contents
by his personal rrejudices or his private
tastes: and the man who subscribes for and
to expect that he shall find in it only
prove, nothing to offend his preiudces, or
shock his sensibilities. They will be dsap-
pointed who undertake or expect either Of
these things. A paper may exi.t-for pe-
pers do exist-that are the simple refexes
of individuals, yet they are not public Jour-
mails, but private publications., depending
not upon any character of their own, but
upon that Of their individual conductors,
andexpiring with their retirement or decease.
Necessarily there are of limited circulation.
because, failing to be newspapers, which arc
the want of everybody, they appeal only to
such a class of minds, as are in intimate sym
pathy with the peculiar personal opinions
and tastes of their individua! conductors
This is necessarily small.
The true newspaper is chiefly minute
history Of the times-not necessarily anv-
thing more, certainly nothing less; record.
ing, explaining, illustrating the events and
progress of daily life; ; drawing its lessons
and leading the race from the present to the
future. First, it is the historian, second,
the prophet of the people. OF course
therefore, it must record dsagreeable things,
as we'll as the agreeable and elevatins events
Of life's action. 1t has no choice but to do
this. 1t must picture life. Cowpcr years
ago described the newspaper as I" the map
OF busy life." 1t canno, gather grapes Of
thorns and figs of thistles; though it may
and should seek to educe good from the evil
it necessarily records. Ths true historian
of the past does not pick or. only the good
deeds that lie recorded in the progress of
the world; he has to treat Of wars, of mur-
ders, OF seductions, of licentiousness, Of
crimes of every shade and description, per-
sonal and popular, as well as of benev olencc,
of righteousness, Of progress in civilization,
the arts, sciences and morals. Indeed, the
evil and the good are so interlaced tha. thev
cannot be separated. Through corruption,
through evil, through trials, and tempta-
tions are the individuals and the races of
the world purified and advanced. Equally
broad and impartial is the duty Of the Jour
nalist-the historian Of the present. He
must take what comes, the good and the bad,
and send it forth on its mission, the one to
produce beneficial results by example, tho
other by warning. and often the evil deeds
of history are more potent for reformation
than its illustrations of purity and noble
ness.
The character and ability Of the Journal
ist and historian are tested md illustrated
in their judgment as to what is history
What occurrences good and bad are Of
character to justify and demand record
The test of this is not their goodness or their
badness-or the degree of those qualities-
put rather their illustratvenes, and relative
importance the interests they involve, the
nature of the questions they present, the in
struction they give of the crimes. the vices
and the ignorance the virtues, the strength
and the learning of the society to be pic,ur.
cd and of the age to be recorded. The his
torian must present an average record-be
fails if he makes it one sided with virtue,
or one sided with vice. And in the true ap-
probation Of the character of the times and
the people, to whom he deyotes his pages,
more than in the eloquence of his sentences,
lies the test of the ability and capacity Of
the historian, whether his record appear in
pressed volumes, or the hasty ''folio Of four
pages"
This rule makes newspapers and books to
contain frequently incidents and relations
that shock the taste Of the reader, and which
may not always with proprie,y be read aloud
in an indiscrmipate company of both sexes,
and of both old and young. If the newspa-
per left at mans d Dor contains occasional
facts and relations that he would rather his
sons and daughters should not read, so have
books in his library pages of no different and
no better reading; so has the Bible, which
is the family daily food. But does it follow
that one or all should be pToscr:bcd because
Of these .hngsf Does it follow that the
editor, the historian, the prophet, wantonly
recorded them. in order to gain circulation
for his paper, his volume his inspired record;
or as part Of their duty in representing
life in all its variety, and man with all his
sins and actions? If they carry to their
readers the records Of disigreable vices, or
even Of disgusting and indecent performan-
ces, do they no, also present the other sido
of life--do they not teach to virtue through
these very pages that offend the taste, and
shock the nicer sensibilities Of our nature,
and teach it more forcibly and effec.ually
than with any milder texts? Has not evil
in its grosser forms, God ordained mis-
sion; and is not the virtue of ignorance,
untried, untempted, unknowine, the poorest,
weakest and most uncertain virtue that life
can giveY"