Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-02-18
REFORMATION FROM WITHIN.


part of defendants has been by some papers
made a question The better reason, how
ever, supports the first speculation men
are becoming less fearful to draw legal
weapons upon the posSessors or lessees Of
types, and the latter are not much more
vulnerable than heretofore. The people
see more clearly that there is no reason
why the man who writes and prints an
infamous charge against his neighbor
should not be held to the same accounta-
bility as he who utters libel by word of
mouth. That this is fair rule to apply
is being impressed forcibIy upon public
opinion. The liberty of the press hedges
in precious privilege, violation of the
sanctity of which would endanger our lib
critics. But it is also true that it has fos-
tered disposition to assail for the sake OF
mere sensationalism. This practice, hap
PLY confined for most part to a class OF
journals that are properly estimated as
unreliable and caterers to low, vicious
tastes, has been INDUCED in to a degree
that was from the beginning nauseating,
not to say abhorrent, and it is now begin
ming TO reap a harvest of actions at law
that possibly may aid in checking the evil.
No one has any special sympathy for a
newspaper lIbeler; there is no reason why
he should have greater claims for mel ciful
who goes about deyouring character by the
Office OF the tongue. There is no greater
safeguard for the press, no broader guaran-
tee Of It's liberty, than the fact that the
private citizen and the publisher Of the
newspaper stand upon equal footing before
the law For the right of citizenship is
the sovereign right, and there is nothing
above it or greater than it in the Republic
What the citizen may speak he may
write and print, and that which is
held sacred by the law in one case, is as
jealousy guarded in the other. That GER
tain OF the press abuse these guarantees is
undeniable, and in seven cases out of ten
it is more for the purpose of gaining repu-
tation for great penetration and public
spirit, than for exposing crime or laying
bare corruption. 1t is humiliating to know
that in not few cases libels are carved by
prominent papers out of pure fiction, with
no shadow of ground work, dependence
being placed upon the obscurity of the as
sailed, or the fearfulness of the victim to
attack the press, for escape from deserved
consequences. One instance of which we
know, is where vicious libel was printed
in metropolitan paper, calculated to
greatly injure character and at the same
time to give an air of courage and public
spirit and sensational enterprise to the
journal. The victim, however, though
obscure, proves to be combative, and has
manifested it by resort to the remedy the
law provides. The truth is, certain ex-
pressions attributed to another and pub
lished as having been written by him, and
in which the libel consisted were con-
cocted in the office of the paper REFER d to,
and credited to the authorship OF thu in
nocent person. OF course, if justice is
done, the plaintiff viii establish his limo
cence in Court, and thus give encourage
ment to others who have suffered unmeTit-
edly from the same quarter.
The disposition to hold the press to
stricter accountability is not more manifest
in one section than in another it is gen
eral sentiment, and is voiced in nearly all
the States by notable actions for libel, and
by open and fat denunciations of vicious
publishing that permit of no reply. The
honest press, the conscientious publishers,
the faithful chroniclers of the worlds
news, the free, fearless, and open, handed
newspapers of the country, benefit by any
revolution of sentiment that demands sup
preston OF Misunderstanding. The office
of the press is that of the fearless critic OF
public men and activities; the vehicle of
news; the reflector of public opinion, the
of morals and the promoter
OF the general welfare. 1t was never in
tended, in any system of government, that
it should become through any of its rep
resentatives the means for carriage of filth,
or the agency for assaults upon character
and for the invasion of the privacy of
lives gulltless of anything deserving of
public inspection.
The esprit de corps among newspapers
has led them heretofore to stand pretty
closely together when some of their num-
her were piled with libel suits, but lat
terly it IS evident that the press is more
discriminating in its judgment in these
matters. and less clannish. 1t is certainly a
good sign, and indicates that reformatory
processes are at work within press circles,
that viii bring about, in the end, still
higher and better social order of jour
nalism, from which the lawiess papers and
the mere scavengers viii be excluded 50
rigidly that it will pretty efiectualIy work
their extinction. Actions for libel cannot
alone check the uueonsciona6le publishers;
but this reform that is coming from within
journalistic ranks as well as without, will.
1t is 4 reform that classifes the outcast
Journals, and refuse 10 the vicious sheets
ordinary fraternal recognition. 1t is sec
onded by the public, and its effects are
manifest on all sides by the abandonment
every now and then of sensationalism and
scurrility on the part of papers that have
been notorious for filth and abusive meth
ods-an abandonment found to be essential
to their existence, and that reflects public
tastes as being great deal cleaner and
better than the sensaiionalists would have
us believe.
SENSE AND sTATEsMAEsHIP ENOUGH.
The Richmond, (Va.) Dispatch, forgetful
of the past, induIges in this remarkable
statement:
T',,ars neva- aas heen any conference.-the in