The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-04-25
Power of the News Correspondent.

OF course, the enormous power of the press
being conceded, the equal responsibility of
the editorial profession cannot be denied
Inc news Is known through the papers, and
It Is very much what the newspapers make it.
SO, also, public opinion IS necessarily yery
much moulded by the comments of the press
upon that news. What is done and said in
Washington, for instance, is chiefly known
and has therefore its chief influence, from the
reports and summaries which are furnished
to the newspapers from that city, The de-
bates are printed in the Globe. But who
reads the Globe, except honorable gentlemen
who wish to impale other honorable gentle
men upon their own blunders? 0t
The news in Washington, the current and
character OF debates, consequently the repu-
tations ofthe debaters, come very much from
the hands of the correspondents. There
were newspaper generals during the war, and
there are newspaper statesmen always. But
the telegraph has transformed the correspond
ent He is no longer the gentleman who
commented upon familiar events after they
had occurred, the rear-guard, the cleaner; he
it is who tells us of the day, and describes the
aspect and the immediate effect of the war
riOrs. Yes, and he takes part in the debate
while it is still proceeding; and the audience
in his gallery is not the near handful in the
chamber-it is the people of continent. He
stings with squib, he ridicules with a phrase.
There are no amenities, no limitations. He
must affectpublic opinion to react upon the de-
bate, to answer Congress while it is speaking.
He is the whipper-in in chief. he must ca
jole, coerce, crush. A torrent of sarcasm, the
darkest insinuation, as well as the sincere
protest and the earnest argument-an these
are the equipment of the Washington cores
pondent of to-day, who is no longer remote
spectator, timid or careful critic, but very
much the editor in chief by position and in
influence, who writes to-day, in the very ar
dor of the conflict, what is read to- morrow at
breakfast beyond the Aneghanies and upon
the Pacific coast.
1t is to his words that the reader first turns,
and it is he who makes the first impression.
This is so true that the portraits of most of
the conspicuous men in Congress are not
painted by their own words and votes, but by
the descriptions of them which the cores
pondent gives. During the impeachment tri-
| al picture was daily sent to each great news.
| paper, but picture colored by the hopes and
| feelings of the painter. So furious was the
fray, so passionate the appeal to the preju-
| dces of the public, that one of the most stern
| ly incorruptible men who ever served his
! country was bitterly derided for protesting to
have conscience; and another, who did his
| duty simply because he was too manly not to
| do it, and who knew that he did it at the cost
OF the sympathy of friends and the support Of
constituents, was savagely denounced as a
Judas Iscariot taking his thirty pieces. As
we write, the grave closes over him, and the
whitest flowers will fifty bloom upon it. But
how many, remembering that brand of Judas,
and knowing nothing more of him, may still
suppose that the vote which showed how
true man he was was somehow the proof of
"a want of manhood EDITORS Easv Chair,
IN Harper's Magazine for Nay.