Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1873-07-30
The Morals Of journalism.
tscribner, for August


tscribne-, for August
In the d,ssHssiOns OF journalism
which have been started by editorial
and the, ,estabIishment OF
chairs Of Journalism IN ono or two
academic institutions, tits well not to
forget the matter of morals. A great
deal Of Indignation has been metcd
out to those presses which publish,
quack advertisements {, calculated to en-
courage vice aud crime. In this thing,
o gmat is strained ut that camel
may be swallowed !; for, almost with
out exception, the papers which de-
nouiice and refuse to publish these
advertisements, take endless pains to
spread before their readers the details
Of the crimes which the advertise
mcnts are supposed to engender or
Murders, suicides, Sc
,adnlteries, ,burglaries, ,tiIcfts,
scandals-all disagreeablc and dis.
graceful things-ttetaiied histories of
events which nppeai to pruricnt tastes
aud q morbid desire for coar.c amt
brutatexcitemruts-- not these the
lea ling materials Of u great multitude
of our daily pupers! We may be
but we believe that there
is no department of the worlds news
given with such exhaustive particu-
larity rs that which relates to vice
and crime. If this be doubted, let the
first paper at hand be taken up, and
the fact will, we think, bc d .tcrinined
rs we apprellen,l it. We know that
in many papers the remedial agencies
of society-the churches. schools, So
cial conventions-privat and orgail-
lied char!ties-bcg for space that is
freely accorded to tho record of Il
petty thief or an umfaitliful husband
Or wife. That which will make u
spicy paragraph is chosen before that
which Will make healthy one.
Nor is this all. The crimes which
arc thus spread before the public for
its daily food are often treated lise
hut crimes. Some of our
papers have II way of doing up their
columns of local crime as if it were
all n joke. The writer makes all i'll
genious jest of everything hc is call
ed upon to notice. The poor women
who are lost to virtue and society,
with hell within them aud before
them. furnish grateful themes for the
reporters careless pleasantries. Their
arraingmcnt, their trial, their sch
tence. their appearance, their words,
are chronicled in uufecling slang. with
tho intent TO excite laughter. That
which 10 4 good mam or woman il
4 matter to be laughed ut, or to he
passed over as of no account. a case
of infideliiy in the marriage relation.
involving the destruction OF the peace
of families, the disgrace of children,
and the irrcmediable shame of par
ties primarily concerned, comes TO
us labeled: erich Developments The
higher the life involved and the purcr
the reputation, the ''r.chcr" the 3d.
always. Nothing pleas
es our jesting reporter like large game
A clergyman is the best, next lay
member, aud then any man or woman
who may be in n high social position.
"Crime in high life" is q particularly
grateful dish for those to serve up
who cater for the pruricut public. II
is impossible not to conclude that
the men who write these items and
delight in them, and that the
men who publish them regard them
tile value. We know of nothing
more heartless than the way in which
criminals and crime are treated by a
portion of the daily press, and moth
ing more dcmoralizing to the public
and to those who arc guilty of trifling
with them under the licensc OF the
reporters pen.. 1t is a bad, bad bus
iness. 1t is an evil which every paper
to be respectable ought to
cut up, root and branch. So long rs
crime is treated lightly it is enc0ur-
aged. So long, too, rs the cdifying.
informing. remedial and purifying
agencies of the world are subordina-
ted in the public notice 10 the records
of vice and crime, simply because
they are less startling or spicy, it is
nonsense to talk about quack advcr-
tiscmcnts, and q parade of mock vir-
tue which deserves both to be Fitted
and laughed at.
The daily paper has now become q
visitor in every family of ordinary
1t has become the daily
food of children and youth all over
our country, and it ought never to
hold q record which would naturally
leave an unwholcsomc effect upon
their minds. If crime is recorded,
it should be recorded as crime, and
with Il conscientious exclusion of all
details that the editor would exclude
were he called upon to tell the story
to his boy upon his knee, or to his
daughter sitting at his side
The way in which uastincSs and
are advertised in criminal
reports is abonlinable. 1t is not nee
cssary: it is not on any account de-
sirablc. a thousand things OF great
CT moment and of sweetcr import
pass unnoticcd bw the press every
day. The apology that the press mus
be exact. impartial, faithful, literal,
etc., is a shabby one. a press is never
when, by the predominance
it gives to crime in its reports, it con-
veys the impression that crime is the
most important thing to be reported,
when, in truth, it is the least impor-
tant. Its records donot hinder crime,
10 not nourish virtue, do not
advance intelligence, do not purify
youth, do not build up the best
l"tSA>St' VI ooS'S's o't oooob y
ton of the columns Of the public
press by them is n stupcndous moral
nuisance that ought to b: abated.
We do not expect the press TO be
very much in advance of the people.
either in morality ar intelligence. II
is quite rs much the outmruwth as
the leader of our civilization. but II
ought TO be an emancipation from
the best American spirit and culture
and not the worst. We shall have.
probably, So long rs crime exists.
scavnngers who follow
in its way to CLEAN aud gorge its un-
cleanncss. We have such now, anu
a beastly brood who CLEAN after them
even but why a press claiming TO
he respectable should deem it its
duty TO assist in their dirty work
surpasses our comprehension.
IntcreAtiny tn I'm q n csa Wen.