Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-10-27
uairhmap & gonrpaL
WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER 27. 1875.
News.Making.

NeWs.Making'
Tho press Of the present day has brought
almost to perfection the art Of collecting
news The machinery which it uses to gair
information Of current events reaches to al
most every village, not merely of our owl
country, but also Of the civilized world. Tn,
wings Of the lightning and the pulses Of
steam are made to surmount the barriers Of
time aud distance. The inhabitant Of oui
great cities descends to his breakfast and
finds in the sheet still damp from the press
the record Of events that six hours previou,
were happening on the other side Of the
globe and the country is but little behind
the city. We wonder at and admire this
result. The marvels Of Aladdin's lamp
were not more strange The metropolitan
journal of to-day, with its corps Of able
editors and writer's, with its worldwide tele-
graphic communications, and its agents and
reporters in every part Of the world, is an ex-
hibition of organizing and executive ability
that is worthy to receive the highest praise
Such journal is capable Of eXerting an
almost unbounded influence. The issues Of
the daily and weekly press constitute the
principal part Of the reading Of large por-
ton of the community. Theyexcite and keep
in motion the currents Of popular feeling, and
to a large extent determine the tone, both
social and moral Of the sections in which
they circulate. With the responsibility Of
such influence resting upon them, it becomes
them to consider with the greatest care how
they exert it, and to make the closest scru-
tiny into the materials they set before the
public.
Il is in this connection that we wish TO en-
ter our protest against a tendency plainly
marked in the daily press of the country :
we mean the tendency TO publish matters
which, especially in their details, the public
not only has no right to know, but had far
better be kept ignorant Of tendency to
parade the most revolving circumstances Of
the most revolving crimes, and to array the
foulest deeds in the garments of notoriety.
We believe this to be perncious in the ex-
IRENE, and that the newspapers which are
guilty of it are not merely forgetting the true
province Of paper, which is the dissemna-
ton of worthy information and knowledge,
and the opportunity TO the public at large for
proper discussion of views, but are prosti.
tuting their good name and character to the
desire of a false popularity, or else to the
same spirit which lately led the railroads to
desecrate the Christian Sabbath-the hope
of gain, even when unlawfully obtained.
This tendency is largely due to the excited
state Of feeling that existed during the war,
and that craved the stimulus of wild adven-
ture and ample detail Almost every man
and woman in the country was directly in
terestel in the progress of the war. Every
paper was scanned for news from the front.
The papers found that the ordinary sources
of information were not sufficient, aud they
dispatched 10 the field small army Of cor
respondents and reporters, who, relying on
knowledge and imagination. sent back full
details which failed to come through the reg
ular dispatches.
The close of the war put an end to the
chief source of such material, but popular
taste had been created, and the press, in
stead of attempting TO check it aud turn it
in the right direction, still further pampered
it by sending reporters all over the Land, who,
10y gathering up every exciting murder and
sensational report, have given to the papers
the character of intense worthlessness, which
in general they now bear. A newspaper
report has become synonymous with canard.
Men lose their confidence in papers which
arc filed with gossip and scandal and report
ers' theories. 1t is no uncolnmoa thing for
man, ON meeting another reading the last
daily and inquiring, whats the news %
to receive the reply, "Oh, nothing /" aud yet
there are probably in that very paper from
ten TO twenty columns filled with letters and
dispatches purporting to be the news of the
world but so little character of veracity at
taches to them that they cease to be "news,"
aud become "rumors."
1t is not the fact that through the preva-
lence OF rumors the newspapers have lost,
for large part, the character of reliability,
that is their worst feature, but the fact that
these rumors and details are frequently of an
unclean and defamatory character. Excite
matchmaking that will "take lis de-
sired, even at the expense of truth, aud the
reporters, prowling round the country, like
beasts of prey, catch up every flying scandal,
every breath of impure suspicion, every ma
lignant whisper, every account of crime and
sending it TO the papers, it is blazoned
through the country in staring capitals and
loaded lines. There is no character so well
establishedin the progress of honorable years
that IT need not fear the assassin blade of a
scandalous rumor there is no circle so sa-
cred, no home so private, that its privacy
may he not invaded and its peculiar treas
ures displayed before the eyes of the world.
Should some sudden event bring family
prominently before the community, immed-
ately will come the special correspondents"
who, iorgetful of all decency and respect, will
force their way into the family circle, will
gossip with the loafers on the corners Of the
streets will scrape information and surnise
from even the yilest sources, and the next
day there will appear in the prints revela-
tions of family secrets, descriptions of the
home, of the members of the family, of their
feelings, and states-in short, the things
which no honorable man would repeat TO his
neighbor, and which it is simply Infamous
for public Journal to set before the world.
Private character has no protection, for if
an evil deed has been done, suspicious and
accusations are made broadcast; circum.
stances are magnifed into complete chains
OF evidence, and innocent persons are Sian.
dercd with an etfrontery and baseness
which should bring down upon the slanderer
the ayenging indignation of the community.
Let no one say that this is an exaggerated
picture. Let him open almost any daily
paper, and he will find, with flaming head
ings, long accounts of murders, violations,
etc And not merely will there be the facts
stated, but there will be elaborate theories
OF the crime, and one person, though prob
ably several, will be represented as strongly
suspected, If not undoubtedly guilty. The
case viii also be worked up in all the horri-
BILE details which it can possibly afford.
To take case in hand the recently terrible
murder in Pembroke, n. II. Every day