Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-11-24
Newspapers and Their Critics.

FUN tne 81 LOu1o GLOBE Democrat.
We have class Of critics in this country who
make it their special province to decry
the alleged nippancy and superficiality of the
newspapers. With an assumption of superior
wisdom that never justifes itself by its works,
they declare in persistent and tiresome way
that the daily press is a mere purveyor of idle
gossip and loose opinions of men and things.
One of these arrogant apostles of culture, Mr..
Chas. Eliot Norton, insists that even the larg-
est and strongest of our public journals s.ad-
dress themselves solely to the task of giving
the news of the day, and the items of rews
which they collect with the most assiduity are
those which crafty a vicious taste for sensa-
tons, scandals, coarse personalities and the
like" He 10 good enough to admit that these
papers must be assumed to meet the demands
of the majority of readers, or they would not
survive and flourish; but that only emphasizes
the fact. he concludes, that the editors are en-
gagged in a sort OF conspiracy to prevent the
people from obtaining solid and profitable
mental food.
The injustice and unfairness of this estimate
could hardly be more pronounced. 1t is true
that the papers make the publication Of news
the duty of first importance. Their philosophy
il based upon the idea that the people are
mainly interested in current events; but il does
not include a preference for the triling and
demoralizing over the substantial and bene-
fetal. They take things as they find them.
because they cannot do otherwise, but the
space which they devote to scandal and crime
is very small compared with that which thew
give to matter OF a better sort. In the true
sense Of the term, they are the historians of
the period in which We live. The facts which
they daily present are the materials which go
to make mp the annals of civilization, If
these facts are not always vast and splen-
did, they are still potent and significant We
N ha lfx-v 4
in O grand and tremendous fashion: but the
story goes on, nevertheless, and its details are
worth reporting, even IL they do lack the DUAL.
fty Of surprising pith and moment. The news
papers would be very glad to have only occur
rencee OF lofty and magnificent kind to
chronicle, but such occurrences do not come 70
pass at command. For the most part. the
world moves in commonplace manner, and
the great events are as miracles. 1t 10 not quite
true, perhaps, a. prominent editor remarked
the other day, that anything which God per
mits to happen may be justifably printed; but
have right to record small things when large
ones are not to be found.
When everything has been said upon the
question OF news, however. a. the word IL COM
monty understood, there yet remains the fact
that the papers are prompt to publish all the
branch Of knowledge. The competeuf editor
regards such things - news and never misses
them. In the course Of year great paper pre-
SCENTS its readers with everything Of value that
Is produced by the worlds students and inves-
tigators. Hardly q day pa0es that room is not
made for columns which contributes effectively
to what Mr.. Norton calls 'the development
Of rational intellectual curiousity and self-im-
provement" The contant tendency ID toward
the substitution of such matter for that Of q
light and transient character. In spite Of
al that the scoferS and pessimists say
TO the contrary, the American people are
stesdily gaining in Intelligence and culture;
and the newspaper press = by no means the
least forceful agency Of their advancement II
adap6 itself TO their taste In Q certain sense,
and in another sense IL instructs and expands
and uplifts that taste. The select champions
Of sweetness and light who can zee no good In
this busy and pervasive influence nave failed
10 grssp il meaning and appreciate is con-
quests. They contemplate e fron point q
view which b neither canAid On The oas had
nor accurate on the othsr. Their criticisms,
therefore, have no weight, and only serve %
advertise . spirft At Iprejndice and b&go&Ky
which y without my plansibie sEcass.