The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-12-06
NEWS AND POLITICS.

The primary object OF newspaper
would appear to I've the publication of
news, but 10 practice this is not always
the case Many journals seem to prefer
iStinction as organs of opinion to fulill>
ing their true mission. In too many in
stances the dissemination of news is look
ed upon as An entirely secondary matter to
the expression of opinion. Often, too,
what news is given is so distorted to bol~
ster up the personal views of the editor
as to be entirely valueless. The editor
publishes not what actually occurred, but
what in his opinion should have hap
pened. This is particularly true of politi>
cal occurrences. Partisan feeling opcr-
ates upon the average editor like Il tele~
scope upon the vision. When a great
party demonstration takes place one cdr
tor views it through a telescope which
magnifies the affair hundred fold. The
rival editor looks at it from the other end
of the telescope and to him everything
appears mean, small and pretty. 4 ludi>
crous instance of this occurred in Luz
buque recently on the occasion of DEM
Ocratie jubilee. The Herald is a strong
democratic sheet, while the Times is just
as intensely republican. According to the
- nF
Cleveland and Hendricks was the grand
est and most gorgeous political event that
ever occurred within the annals of the
city" According to the Times, " it WAS
sham in every sense of the word. There
We're not over 800 torches in line and not
over 450 democrats in all, including boys
and dOnkeys. The promised squad OF
$50 cavalry men dwindled down to just
fifteen" According tc the HTald it
was the most enthusiastic jubilee the city
has ever known According to the
Times 1T was q dismal affair." Accord
ing to the Herald. at was spontaneous
outburst of all the people to rejoice
that the government had once more
fallen into democratic hands and that re-
form and honesty was near at hand. Ac
cording to the Times "the procession wa.
simply farce. 1t represented nothin!
except the hilarious feelings of the part
Elephants" According to the HTalt
"the people were wild in enthusiastic 10,
and made themselves hoarse shouting 70
victory" According to the Times ''grrat
was the promise, but painfully small tn
realization. 1t has a sham in every sens
of the word"
enough when thus placed in juXtapositior
but it is not more absurd than many o
the editorials written in the course of
heated political campaign The ayrrae
editor paints his candidate but little lowe
than the angels and paragon of all til
virtues. lie places him on an imaginar
pedestal and asks the whole world to boy
down and worship him. The qualitiC
Of the opposing candidate are eXaggerate
to an equally ridiculous degree. He
either a fool or villain, sometime
combination of both. Transpose the name
of the candidates, attribute the saint
characteristics to the villain and vic
versa and the rival editor agrees precisel
with his esteemed contemporary acros
the street. 1t is such writing as tn
that makes politics nearly synomymor
lying. In political campaign there
nothing readers require 50 much frol
newspapers as the truth, in order tn;
they may be able to form a correct juds
ment, and there is nothing they get s
little of.