Orangeburg times. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1872-1875, 1874-07-02
Cheap News.

"As easy as lying" says Hamlet.
This is one of those happy touches OF
Shakespeare that seem slikht and acoi-
dental, while furnishing fruitful text
TO oil after-time. Self-observaut per-
sons are aware of the ease with which
exaggeration and other varieties of false
hood slip from the tongue, and the ex-
treme difficulty Of giving an exact ao-
count of the simplest matter. And this
difficulty is greatest to ardent and inn:
aginative persons, who naturally take to
writing. The very qualities of mind
which give them their power to interest
other minds are, in many instances, the
qualities that incline them to pictures
que and effective exaggeration. Telling
the simple truth is the. hardest thing
done either by tongue or pen. How
easy it was to represent Napoleon Bona
parte galloping over the Alps on q ro-
buEt charger, gorgeously caparisoned,
his cloak flying in the breeze, and COM
paot legions pressing up the steep accli-
witty This lie was imagined in mo-
ment but it cost M. Theirs much pain
full toll and long travel to ascertain that
his conqueror crossed the Alps on q
mule, muff1ed to the eyes in his cloak,
and attended by one guide on foot.
In tho press, as in literature, false
hood has the additional advantage over
truth of being much the less expensive.
Your raw hand will briug you in an &C
count of finance meeting which shall
be of necessity o mere tissue of miscon-
certions and misstatements. To get an
approximately true narrative OF what
occurred, without verbatim reports, you
must send three persons of trained in
telligence but q full and exact report,
with the requisite descriptive matter,
demands the intense labor of twelve
train men. Now the account stands
thus tissue of green falsehood, two
dollars vivid narrative strongly resem-
bling the truth, thirty dollars !; verbatim
report, eighty dollars. In every de-
partment of newspaper, from the most
commonplace reporting to the most i'm
portaut criticism, we find that lies are
very cheap and truth is very dear.
We must also bear in mind that if ly-
ing is easy, it may also be for the mo-
ment highly effective. That tawdry
falsehood of Bonaparte bounding over
the mountains adorns at this hour hun
dreds of barber-shops in all countries,
as the tale, equally groundless, Of Lin
coin and the Scotch cap figures in many
histories of the late war. Some mon of
very ordinary abilities do succeed, after
long practice, in purging their conver-
sation of the usual e1aggerations and
and credulities; but even this negative
part of difficult virtue is apt to be
purchased by the loss of vivacity. Their
conversation is as dull as it is correct.
But the journalist lies under an mex
orable necessity of not being dull. In
correct he may be, to certain extent,
and live; but If he is dull, he dies.
And, unhappily, there are three ways
open to the journalist of avoiding dull
ness two wrong and one right. The
right way is vigilance, tact, and hard
labor in the gathering and utterance Of
truth proper to be told. The two wrong
ways demand vastly inferior powers.
One is the invention or repetition of
falsehood, and the other the revelation
of matters not proper to be told. A
fertile and sympathetic mind, capable
of public spirit, finds the material for
stirring and delightful journalism in q
village; but there are dull dogs that,
even when posted in Washington, the
most interesting capital in the world,
are compelled to eke out their daily
dole of routine by calumnious inven-
tion. James Parton, IN Harper's Mag.
asine.