Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1865-11-18
Absurdities and Abuses Of the Telegraph.

4
ties, and particularly the Associated
Press 10 our large cities, have not, in
all their efforts at reforming the abu-
ses Of the Telegraph, succeeded in res
cuing it from those baneful influences
which have made il in many instances,
mere panderer to sectional and SEN
sational passions and tool in the
hands Of selfish politicians and spech-
lators.
Why is it, that the Associated
Press, which pays SO literally and SO
dearly for its daily dish Of kilograms,
do not insist upon more reliable and
efficient system of telegrapby9 As at
present conducted, it reminds us of the
game ofnine-pins, where the pieces are
set up just for the pleasure Of knock
ing them down again One day we
find score or so of dispatches emilia
zoned with startling captions and
seemingly pregnant with great
| events :" The following day comes
another batch upsetting all their il
lustrious and "highly illustrated" pre-
decessors, and throwing the public
mind into most confused condition
| Of doubt, misunderstanding and per
plexity. Not unfrequently the dis
patches are couched in such uuintel-
ligible terms, as to defy the most
adroit ingenuity at decipberiug them,
and il deciphered at all, 10, and be-
hold "the game is not worth the
candle" We think it an error on
the part Of many journalists, to lead
off their telegraphIc columns with
such flaming heads as they are in the
habit Of doing As a general thing,
| it looks like attaching too much sig
| nifcance to insignificant items. There
are exceptional instances, it is true,
where intelligence Of great interest
| and moment is reported, in which
comprehensive and expressive head
ings seem not out Of place; and
| which, when ipgeniouslv framed, con
| tain within themselves the gist Of all
that follows them. But, how often is
it we see quarter or a half column Of
sensational head lines spread over a
very meagre and beggarIy account Of
unimportant circumstances and events,
this account to be contradicted, per-
haps, in the next days issue.
1t is a common expedient with
some smart operators, when there
happens to be a lull in the news
market to manufacture such items as
they think will "take" with certain
people, knowing that in all commu-
mites there is class of "go6es
moucAes" ready to swallow anything
that comes along, without stopping
to enquire into the why Or where
fore of the delectable meses morsels
served out to them. 1t is sufficient
for them that the items are there in
black and white, and that being
honored with newspaper insertion
and dignified with stunning capitals,
they have par consequence, the gos-
pei odor. .r.s-
It is bad enough to have to wade
through SO much profound tele
graphic stupidity, and then to arrive
at such shallow soundings of fact and
information, as is ordinarily the case
in such tasks, without being COM
PEELED to read over the silly lucubra-
tions of some inventive genius who
feels bound to entertain the public
from day to day by dishing out the
pigments Of his disordered brain, or
enlarging a modicum of fact into the
proportions of huge and wild ex-
travaganza.
We hope to see the time when in
stead of the unenvious sobriquet
of Lying Telegraph" which the