Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-17
THE NEWS QUESTION.

F" Wasp, for instance, only few days ago
gave several samples of such frauds by
the CAronic'e." Yesterday the Chronicle
attempted to defend itself against this
charge, and in long article, consisting
chiefly of untruthful praises of its own tel
egraphic enterprise, 1t somehow contrived
to ignore the very fraud of which it had
been accused. 1t emphaticaliy denies
that it Sc earbles " or " stuffs its news, but
it dces not and it cannot deny that 1t has
repeatedly published stale news as fresh'
and news which it received by mail as tele-
graphic news. That is the substance of
the charge against it, and to show that this
is not an idle accusation we to-day reprint
from the Wasp proofs of the Chronicles de-
liberate attempts to cheat its readers. In
the cases cited it has simply clipped news
from the Eastern journals, week old,
and has altered the date and then
printed the articles as dispatches of the
night preceding publication. The evil
dence adduced by the IFdsp is quite
conclusive On this point, and the Chronicle
is not only accused but convicted. In
stead OF meeting this very difficult indict-
ment it tries to carry the war into Africa,
by charging the Call with republishing its
news of the day before. If the Cal has
dene this, however, every person knows
that the Chronicle has also done it. Not
day passes but that sheet reprints some
news brought over the wires by the Asso-
ciated Press, and in regard to Coast news
it may be said to be almost entirely de-
pendent upon the California Press Asso-
citation. The latter is an organization dis
tinct from the Associated Press, and it has
arranged most thorough and comprehen-
sive news system all over the Pacific Coast.
The Chronicle is dependent for its coast
news upon few agents scattered here and
there, and unless it can get a clue to
important coast news from early publca-
ton in the Bulletin, it is pretty certain to
be behindhand in its intelligence.
In the article referred to it makes a very
ill-founded boast of the exclusiveness of
its news arrangements, saying, among
other things, that its Geographic bills care
mot footed by an association" If by this
the Chronicle means to assert that it alone
pays for all it's telegraphic news, the pub
lie must conclude that it is remarkably
philanthropic journal, and that it supplies
the San Francisco Examiner and Ecenng
Post, and the Sacramento Bee, with dis
patches for nothing. For it is very certain
that these journals publish its dispatches,
and that the Examiner publishes the whole
of them simultaneously with itself. Is it
to be believed that the Examiner is given
these dispatches? II so, we have q stand
ard from which the Chronicles own esti.
mate of their value can be calculated. But
as the Chronicle has never yet been GUS
peoted of generosity, or of working in any
direction without the largest considera.
ton to be obtained, the reasonable con-
clusion is that the Examiner has to pay for
its dispatches and as it derives from them
precisely the same benefit as the Chronicle
enjoys, it is not to be supposed that it pays
merely nominal amount for the privilege.
In fact it would seem only fair that the
Examiner should pay half, or nearly half,
the expenses, since by securing these dis
patches it is made as good a newspaper as
the Chronicle in respect to news, while in
all its other departments it is a much bet.
ter paper.
Nor can it be supposed that the Evening
Post gets its news from the Chronicle for
nothing. Being an evening paper, of course
| it cannot receive as much Geographic mat
ter as its morning contemporaries, but it
nevertheless obtains whatever has come
over before o'clock in the afternoon, and
thus becomes member of what is certainly
as much an association, for all practical
intents, as the Associated Press. The
Bee also receives occasionally some fresh
icpatGACo. IL lIuC tlidb tbl5 OoGS HOb
occur frequently, and that it is obliged to
republist the mornings news for the most
part, with only few lines of late intelli-
gence to impart some semblance of enter
prise to the rehashed mass. But we do
not suppose that even the slight and unim-
portant service it receives is had gratuit-
ously, for we know very well that that is
not the Chronicles way of doing business
1t appears, then, that the latter journal
has at least three partners or quasi partners
in its telegraphic arrangements, and that
when it says its bills are not "footed by an
association, though it may be technically
correct, the statement nevertheless
amounts to what the logicians call Sug
gestio Jdlsi.
Nobody Of course has any doubt that it
sells its news for as much as it can get.
The Examiner, being directly in competi.
ton with it, presumably pays a round
price for the dispatches, though, as they
are not worth as much as those of the As.
ISOLATED Press, they cannot be expected to
bring as much in the market. But the
Chronicle sells its news when it can. lust as
it sells everything else belonging to it when
it can. 1t also cheats its readers by put.
ting false dates on stale Eastern news re-
ceived by mail, and printing it as yester-
days dispatches. 1t also steals the Asso.
ciated Press dispatches daily, and serves
them up the next morning, thus commit
ting the very cffense of which it accuses
the Cal. And it is rather silly for it to
pretend that these things are not so, for
though discussions on news are perhaps
" caviare to the general, and not interest
ing because not thoroughly understood,
every journalist in the State is necessarily
aware of the truth, and in a position to
put aside the thin DISCUSSES which our
cornered contemporary employs to conceal
its manifest detection. Had it been wise it
would have held its tongue about matter
which it could not satisfactorily explain.
THE IAROR TROuRrpc