Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-11-06
False News---svt,o is Esespou+za,ge:
From the Springfield n;nss pepublicsNn

People say they can't believe the newspa-
pcys; that first reports are always false, and
nobody knows what has really happened till
weeks after the event, and then they are
obliged to infer it from odd fragments Of truth
that get out by accident The case is not S
bad as this, but it is bad enough 1t is diff
cult to get true id "a OF the events Of this
war. Some of the most important campaigns
and bloodieSt battles will not be understood
till long after the war is over and impartial
history will have many revisons of opini8n
to make as to the regulations lost and won in
the great struggle Of the nation for life II
is always difficult to arrive at an accurate
knowledge Of great events while they are In
progress, and we estimate them uhder the
influence of the general passion and turmoil.
But in this war additional and needless diff
culties are placed in the way Of writing the
history of current events. The newspapers
are not responsible for these difficulties
1t is for the interest Of the press to publish
the truth, and the leading newspapers Of the
country expend great dea, Of time a0d mo-
ney to ascertain the facts as they transp re.
There are some Bohemians in the profession,
it is true, who can be subsidized to write up
or write down regulations, but these are ex-
ceptions. Respectable newspapers 90 not
employ or tolerate such writers. The truth
is that mos. of the attempts at deception
come from another quarter, and the reputa
ton of the press suffers from the false policy
OF the War Department Secretary Stanton
has from the beginning made it leading aim
to bamboozle the people Nobody complains
of the concealments of Army movements, or
the suppression of any facts that might be
useful to the enemy; but outright lying
about battles that have been fought, and
when the enemy is fully informed as to the
results, admits of no excuse The truth
comes out at last, and then such Of the peo-
pie as do not know who did the lying blame
the newspapers, and those who do know lose
confidence in the conduct of the war. The
effects of these frauds upon the people are
bad all around, but the newspapers are the
immediate sufferers, and have right to be
Indignant and to fix the fault where it be-
longs. The newspapers will find out the
truth and print it, if the war office will let
them. Tfnot, then let the responsibility fall
where the fault is.
What monstrous and futile concealments
and perversions Of the truth we have had for
weeks as to the disastrous repulse at Chica-
mauga. The first dispatch that announced
it told the truth, but the War Office immedi-
ately put an embargo on the telegraph, and
went to work to cover up the facts. Little
by little the truth has come out, till now the
War Department itself announces the real
character of the Chicamauga defeat, in order
to justify the removal of Rosecrans. Secre-
tary Stanton is honest and impetnous, but he
lacks faith in the cause and in the people, or
he would not persist in policy that brings
discredit upon himself, the Government and
the press, and serves no useful purpose. 1t
|is time he should reform in this matter, or he
himself reformed out of place and power