The Portland daily press., 1871-07-22
DAILY PRESS.
ND.
SATURDAY, JULY %, 1871.
SHARP CRITICISM ON THE NEWSPAPER PRESS
bf WENDELL PHILLIPS.
lFrom- the National Standard

SHARP CRITICISM ON THE NEWSPAPER PRESS
BY WENDELL PHILLIPS
lFrom- the National Staudard1
once the press undertook to investigate and
report facts. Now it processes only to gather
| gossip. We do not originate this as an accu-
satlon. The press itself assumes this as its
function. Neither do we refer merely to care
lessness of statement. This carelessness is
evil enough. Here is popular monthly. 1t
opens with an article criticising reforms, writ
ten by one of the foremost of our scholars
and gentlemen. He would be ashamed to
mlsquote Plato, and would cheerfully spend
week in searching rather than misstate an in.
cident in the life of Goethe. But here he
nlngs about assertions careless of their tru,b
and too Indifferent to inquire. He does not
seem to think that the babble of the nra.
comes within the rules which bind scholars
and gentlemen. Yet take fifty years together.
and the influence OF the press--in educating
morals and thought, purpose and character,
dwarfs all other rfOrces-literature-, the puI.
pit, and the lyceum-and has no rival except
the habits and lives Of our public men. 1t is
| a momentous, yes, fearful truth that the
millions have no literature, no school. and al
most no pulpit but the press. Not one man
in ten reads books. The effect of a mothers
scrubbing on his face is about as lasting as
That OF two or three years schooling on his
character. And for the millions "going to
meeting" is an occasional amusement or now
and then an hours decor0us wonder. But
every one of rs, except the very few help
less poor, poisons himself every cav with a
newspaper. 1t is parent, school, college. pull
pit, theatre, example, counsellor, all in one.
Every drop of our blood is colored bv il.
Let me make the newspapers, and
care not who makes the religion of the laws.
Here is one OF the leading New York dailies
During the last four or five years that journal
has made four or five times the same gross
misstatements regarding me in articles report.
ed to be written by its editor-in-chief, written
for malignant and party purpose, the incor-
rectness OF which its own columns testify, If
were to complain my letter would not prob
ably be printed. But such sentence of il as
could he most plainly misrepresented would
be copied and made the text for more vituper-
| alton; while the chance mistake of some 9th.
er journal in any trif1e is flooded with every
scOrnful epithet in the dictionary. This a
great injustice. No man, editor or otherwise.
has any right to criticise document of which
he does not reproduce In bis own columns
amply enough to enable his readers to judge
whether his criticism is fair. This silly set
ting up straw foe aud then ostentatiously
knocking bin down, this selection of phrase
or two and cautiously ringing changes, is the
cheap wit and crying sin of our whole press.
1t robs It of any value to the honest student
of question and history. But this any editor.
not drunk with party at the particular mo-
ment, will confess to be faulty. The cardinal
vice of our press is the theory it assumes and
processes that 1t is not held to the report of
fdcts, but only to gather up schat is reported.
No matter whether its statement is true
That is immaterial if the editor can only show
that suci was the rumOr. Should anyone be
injured in business or character, it is his busi-
ness to correct the statement, and In the same
columns If the editor chooses to allow him so
so TO do. That is, A invests his property in
types and proceeds to make money-steals
bis bread-by printing all the gossip be hears
about B and G. B and c must leave their
daily business, and, il not used to compost
ton, hire secretary 10 contradict IL they see
ut. A makes money by printing the lie, if it
be one. Then he makes more money either
by printing the victims denial, or refusing to
print it and ridiculing some phrase in it. We
do not stop to criticise this highwayman's
theory Of stealing ones bread. That is self
evident. Everyadaily paper on the sea board
claims this right to peddle gossip, and pro-
claims this as the function of the press. We
do not envy the possess ors any millions made
in this way. Privateering is an honest trade
in comparison. Our Dante, when he comes,
will put mock auctiOneers, editors and gilt
swindlers into the same limbo.
But this theory of editing renders the press
itself valueless. Its power is immense 1t is
almost omnipotent. But see how this theory,
once recognized, saps its very being If an
editor is not bound to show that his state
one say S. theh ehhnf zc g thst Ia I'm ot bound
to notice his statement. might as well set
about to gag every scandal-monger in the
town. This theory is the one on which the
press defends itself when summoned either
into court or to the bar of public opinion. 1t
scouts every legal rule which lmpinges on
this theory. If it be sound, then the press it.
self, for any right-minded man, is as useless
as an almanac's guesses at the weather. For,
If an editor only processes to report gossip, /
am not bound to notice bis assertions, and, as
consequence, no one has any right to believe
newspaper statement merely because the
victim has failed to contradict it. No lapse of
time, weeks, or months gives any sanction to
newspaper gossip, lifted out of the kennel in
to print. Such is the unfortunate, or fortu-
| nate, effect of the adoption of this theory OF
editing. l remember well the indignant sur
prise of an English gentleman who took from
his pOcket-bOOk carefully preserved scrap
cut from one of our papers, when / informed
him OF this theory of editing, which made his
supposed evidence no evidence at all. He
threw bis fragment of gossip into the fire,
gruffly observing that reputable journals in
his country prOfessed to give you something
better to render their statements worth read
ing. Then look at the morals of the press.
do not refer to the admitted rule that one po-
ltical party is expected 10 lie about the other;
nor to the possibility that when the Republi-
can violates the Constitution the Democrat
sends over and bOrrows the Once-used matter,
still in type, glowing with constitutional in
dgnation, which the Republican used when
his rival sinned few weeks before. That
cheats nobody and demoralizes few. But
take the case Of the premature printing OF the
treaty. The press ridiculed and defied the
Senate. The Senate quailed. Some one had
bribed an official to deceive and break his
promise or oath. The press applauded the
breach of trust, offered to pay the pimp who
provoked it double salary, and made his
judges its laughing stock week after week.
When the five million readers rested, after a
month spent in laughing at the laborious wit
got up for that occasion, what are we to
suppose was the moral effect of the whole
event? Plainly this-every tenth man said,
"Ah! I understand; get money-honestly
if you can, but, anyhow, get money.
That is the new gospel. Keeping your
promise, pocketing only what you've earned,
is played out. If you can, live in a brown
/ stone frOnt-nO matter how you got there
If build my chambers with wrong" the lie
| will not "cry out from wall"-the New York
says so. A fig, then, for the old prophet.
"The worlds my oyster which /, with lie,
| cheat, or bribe, will open." II i can make
money selling good shOvels will. II that is
too hard I'll make more by selling lies and
briting weak men to furnish them. If that is
too slow will pocket my employers CASH
where's the great difference2" We have lec-
tures on Sir Philip Sydney. the ideal gentle
man. Boys are pointed to Lincoln as a SAM
pie honest man. Imagine Sydney or Lincoln
lurking after dark at the back door of one of
the departments, trying to bribs some weak
brother to betray his trust! When the next
desaulter stalks out Of the New York Custom
house let him 60 to any New York daily and
claim applause as an apt pupil of its code of
official morals. One editor breaches religion
to Western academies, the other stays at home
and tempts officers to perjury. When next
an insane (?) clerk in the Post-office ''forgets"
fifty thousand of the nations dollars into his
own pocket let him at once seek the bonora-
BILE Senators who feasted the press-pmps in
the treaty case-and show that he ought to
be forgiven, perhaps rewarded, since he was
i cx,x;a ;sf of xuh ot thov thouuht