Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-08-25
7HE RESPONSIBILITY OF TIE PRESS.

TIE RESPONSIBILITY OF TIE PRESS.
the New York Tribune asks If, after
all, the newspapers are to blame for the
prevalence of suicide, violent crime, etc
The question arises out of the statement
that a gooily number Of people hold news
papers to large responsibility for these
things The Tribune goes into IN eIab-
crate argument to disprove the impeach-
ment. Now this was not needed. We do
not believe that the thinking people IN
any considerable number make any such
absurd charges. II the increased facilities
for the dissemination of news lead men
and women TO the commission Of crime,
primarily the cause of it Iiea with the i'm
proved mail methods first, the telegraph
companies next and the newspapers last.
We may 60 further to illustrate the absur-
dity Of the charge. Formerly intelli.
genoe was transmitted by slow sailing
ships and slower coaches now the written
news speeds around the world by the aid
Of steamships and railway cars. If then,
these improved methods Of communication
facilitate the publicity CT happenings
criminal and otherw and blame Is to
attach for these inducing the perpetra.
ton of other crime, it follows that the
improved methods of communication are
blameful and should be abolished. Nov,
we have no doubt, as the Tribune asserts,
that there Is some blame to be attached
for a deal of moral delinquency in the
public, to certain classes of newspapers.
the Sensational and lewd aheets, the police
gazettes and flash journals the papers that
pander to low tastes and fed the pas.
sions, apparently respectable papers that
cultivate taste for reading that benumbs
the sensibilities-sIl these ave a great
deal to answer for IN, uestionably.
Bnt the press as an institution
OF civilization is not blameable
that some Of Che membership are black
sheep. We might just az well condemn
the art of printing because lewd books are
published, or the art Of biography because
by it news Of crime IL transmitted. Then,
too, the public very seldom realizes how
much Is excluded from the clean aewspa-
per, and how much OF shield Ind guard
it is to society By the place it ais. Il is
not so much what 1t publishes that should
gain the oIesn paper credi! as what it de.
clines to publish, and TIE ignoble ends to
which il refus, to leEd itself, and to which
all journals arr invited far oftener than the
public have suspected. The press of the
day does not make the morals of society
It does not often rise above their level; i
is never worse, and sometimes better. The
proportion Of evil in its composition Is
about the same IS enters into the forma.
tion Of society generally. Because the
press prints the news is no warrant for
charging upon it the responsibility for the
possible results upon some minds. Il is
said that the press has gone TO the extreme
il making public toe affairs of men and the
happenings Of the day. But this, if the
allegation be admitted, is the result Of no.
toriety On the part of men and women,
and not the cause Of it. This is the con-
clusion o. our contemporary, and it could
scarce arrive at any other. Society is the
fountain head, the press one Of the streams
io'ring from it, and testifying to the
purity OF the waters above, or of thsir con
tamination-bus not necessarily response.
bic Tor their fouling. The Tribune says
further on this subject, aad in an apologize
tone scarcely pardonable-for we think the
people whose esteem is worth having IN
derstand the question thoroughly;
The Widespread publication Of murder arouses
whole community, aud often brings a thousand
eyes and ears 70 the help Of justice 2 hen, too
there is natural and pardoBabe .osity With re
gard to some sensational uccurre noes shat must be
satisfied. When men bear Of friends DEATH they
are eager Ga know the details Of his sickness or the
accident that beie him or il he hiss gone astrayf to
understand how and why. This is a human instinct
90 which fe" Of Us superior It is the delicate
duty OF the newspaper 20 satisfy it without going so
far as to make its news demoraliznP. The newspa-
pers are accused OF pryng into the affairs OF the
home, filling their columns full OF offensive person
alitiess ETC. and some OF them are not without s,n
in the matter. But do the public ever think Of tne
striving snd labor the part Of large class II the
community TO get themselves into the nawspapsrg-
yes, and even their home aiiiirs2