Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-08-01
The Morals Of Journalism.

In Lne UlSCuSSlOuS Vi JouIHalIo'u
which have been started by editori-
al conventions and the establish
ment of chairs of journalism in one
or two academic institutions, it is
well not to forget the matter of NOR
ais. A great deal of Indignation
has been meted out to those presses
which publish quack advertisements
calculated to encourage vice and
crime. In this thing, a gnat is
strained at when camel may be
swallowed; for, almost without ex-
ception, the papers which denounce
and refuse to publish these adver-
tisements, take endless pains to
spread before their readers the de-
tails of the crimes which the adver-
tisements are supposed to cngender
and encourage. Murders, suicides,
seductions, adulteries, burglarics,
thefts, scandals-all disagreeable
and disgraceful things-Getailed
histories Of events which appeal to
prurient tastes and morbid desire
for coarse and brutal excitements-
are not these the leading material of
great multitude of our daily pa
pers? We may be mistaken, but
we believe there is no department
of the worlds news given with such
exhaustive particularly as that
which relates to vice and crime. II
this be doubted, let the first paper
at hand be taken up, and he will, we
think, be determined as we appre-
hend it. We know that in many
papers the remedial agencies of So
ciety-the churches, schools, social
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES and organized
charities-beg for space that is free
ly accorded to the record of petty
thief or an unfaithful husband or
wife. That which will make a spicy
paragraph is chosen before that
which will make a healthy one.
Nor is this all. The crimes which
are thus spread before the public
for it's daily food are often treated
like anything but crimes. Some of
our papers have way of doing up
their columns of local crime rs if it
were all a joke. The writer makes
an ingenious jest Of everything he
is called upon to notice. The poor
women who are lost to virtue and
society, with hell within them and
before them, furnish grateful themes
for the reporters careless pleasant
ries. Their arraignment, their trial,
their sentence, their appearance,
their words, are chronicled in un-
feeling slang, with the intent to ex-
cite laughter. That which to good
man or woman is infinitely pathetic
is made to appear matter to be
laughed at, or to be passed over as
of no account. A case of intidelity
in the marriage relation, involving
the destruction Of the peace Of fam
lilies, the disgrace of children, and
the irremediable shame of the par
ties primarily concerned, comes to
us labeled: erich Developments" ="
The higher the life involved the {.
purer the reputation, the "richer''
the .developements" always. Moth
ing pleascs our jesting reporter like
large game. A clergyman is the
best, next lady member, and then
any man or woman who may be in
a high social position "Crime in
High Life" is particularly grateful
dish for those to serve up who cater
for the prurient public. 1t is impos-
siblc not to conclude that the men
who write these items and articles
delight in them, and that the men
who publish them regard them only
with regard to their mercantile val
ue. We know of nothing of moro
heartless than the way in which
criminals and crime are treated by
a portion of the daily press, and no.
thing more demoralizing to tho pub
lie and to those who are guilty OF
trifling with them under the license
of the reporters pen. 1t is bad,
bad business. It is an evil which
every paper claiming to be respect.
able ought to cut up, root and
branch. So long as crime is treated
lightly it is encouraged. So long,
too, as the edifying, informing, re-
medal and purifying agencies Of
the world are subordinated in the
public notice to the records of vice
and crime, simply because they are
less startling or spicy, it is nonsense
to talk about quack advertisements
and a parade Of mock virtue which
deserves both TO be piticd and
laughed at.
The daily paper has now become
a visitor in every family Of ordinar!
intelligence. 1t has become th'
daily food Of children and youth al
over the country, and it ought neve
TO hold record which would natur
all leave an unwholesomc effect upol