The Washington critic., 1886-10-19
RICHARD II. SYLVESTER. - Editor
WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 10, 1856.
A PROTEST.

The publishers OF newspapers owe II
to themselves, as well as TO the public,
TO exclude sensational falsehoods from
their columns in the form of telcgraphic
news. They beittlc their business aud
bring IL into disrepute in proportion, as
they make journalism unreliable.
When, as must sometimes happen, the
telegraph brings in false dispatch,
which bears upon It's face no marks by
which its real character can be seen,
its publication cannot be complained of,
because the publisher, as well as the
public, has been imposed upon by some
lying scamp. But when the falsity of
the startling alleged news is shown on
the next day, then the rascal who set 1t
alloat should at once be put in the pill
lory of publicity by the newspaper on
which he has prncticed his swindlc,
and nothing would afterwards be re-
ceived from him by any journal of re-
spectability.
This subject is suggested by three
outrageous imposturcs, very recently
practiced upon the public in the shape
of special news dispatches. One was
the announcement that the Admins
tration had negotiated at London n new
reciprocity treaty for the free inter
change of certain products of this
country and Canada. The dispatch
went so far in circumstantial detail as
TO give a copy of the pretended treaty,
The story was that the document had
been sent to the Canadian Government
for its approval Both houses of Con.
gress having given emphatic expression
to the universal hostility of the people of
the United States to any more of the one.
sided treaties which can alone be made
with England concerning the Canadian
fisheries, such action as the dispatch in
question charged upon the Admins
tration would have been offensive to
the last degree. At once indignant
denials were made from the British
foreign office and the American Lega-
tion in London. No such treaty, nor
any other on the subjects named, had
ever been discussed between the two
governments. The man who fabrl-
Gated the dispatch has not been held
up to the public contempt by the news
papers, the columns of which he de-
filed, and the daily readers of its
European news are left to guess which
portions of it are the work of his i'm
agination.
Another case was dispatch from
Chicago announcing that the city had
been flooded with counterfeit silver
certificates, and that the secret agents
of the Treasury Department were
actively engaged in hunting down the
offenders. Inquiry shows that the
Treasury officials have no such in
formation, nor has anybody been found
In Chicago who has seen one Of the al.
legged certificates, 1t was simply a
mischlevous falsehood invented by n
person having sufficient credit with the
newspaper to which he sent it to en-.
sure its publication. The readers OF
the journal in question have seen nc
denunciaton in its columns of the
trifler who is given such facilities for
manufacturing sensational lies and
telegraphing them as news.
The latest specimen of this sort of
imposition was the story telegraphed
from Mexico of the assassination of
ex.President Gonzales. This distress
ing fabrication went the rounds be.
fore 1t could be contradicted, although
the Mexican Minister at Washington
lost no time in making the inquiry
which led to its contradiction.
The sender of the malicious false
hood seems to have been left unre
buked to send as many more of the
same kind as may, to him, seem
profitable or amusing.
We repeat that newspaper pub
fishers owe 1t to their own interest
as well as to their patrons, to brand
these imposters who, by their miser.
able falsehoods, manufactured from
whole cloth, throw distrust upon all
the current news of the day.