Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-04-24
THE PRESS AND PUBLIC OPINION.

THE PRESS AND PUBLIC OPINION.
Judge Tourgee, in department occu-
pied by him in the Inter Ocean, takes occa-
sion to say:
The Journalistic idea of public opinion is that
certain leading men in specific lines of thought
control and represent it in these lines. The
truth most usually is that these men, instead of
shaping public sentiment, are themselves
nodded by it. When such men are tapped by
the interviewer and asked to tell what they
think about any newly happened event. their
ideas 90 not represent the public until they have
had an opportunity TO fill themselves with the
drippings of public thought. They are not an
important part OF the current OF public opinion,
but mere indicators who have first to be acted
upon before they can point out its direction.
Now, says the Inter Ocean, the fact is
true, the inference is false. For, it holds,
there are three classes of men whom the
interviewer meets whose opinions operate
upon the public-the scientists, who look
upon questions coldly from the scientific
standpoint and care nothing for the opinion
of the mass; the economists, who are
swayed solely by the financial results to be
expected from certain public action
These, says our contemporary, are surely
not indicators" But it is in error, since
they must represent the thought Of their
class, which embraces certain number of
units that go to make up public opinion.
and to that extent they are modiiers and
molders of it. Public opinion is many
sided, and he takes narrow view who
limits its factors to one class. The scien-
tific and economic views of a question enter
into the creation and manifestation of pub
lie thought, and cannot, therefore, be
ignored The third class mentioned by
our Chicago contemporary is composed of
the political leaders, who, it admits, sim
ply reflect public thought, since it is their
business to ascertain it. "They have long
antenne which they keep in constant ex-
crcise." So, when one of these on any pub
lie question says Il think, ! predict,
my opinion is and so on, it means
Just what he has discovered by this con-
slant exercises of his long antennm, and
shrewd newspaper men knowing this, value
it accordingly. Hence, our contemporary
holds, these are the true indicators" for
they have felt their way to public opinion
before their judgment concerning it was
sought. Because of this fact, and because
the good newspaper employs in the collec-
ton OF expressions, reporters who suppress
their own views and arequick to conjecture
and almost certain to detect the opinio MS
of other, and to note the look and the tone
that play SO important part in express
sion, the forecast Of public opinion in the
press of cities. "is electric in its swiftness
and almost Photographic in its accuracy"
To that extent it is correct in its view,
but what it means by declaring the posi-
ton of Judge Tourgee to be unsound, we
notunderstand. He simply ennunciated
truth that is not controverted by the
hater Ocean-nor indeed does it conflict
with it-that the classes of men treated by
Journalism to ascertain the drift of public
opinion do not make nor control, but simply
reflect it, having first been filled with the
drippings of public thought" It is not
material whether it is ornot correctly stated
by the Judge, that the journalistic idea is
that these men Control" public opinion.
He alleges that they do not represent it,
and he is correct, since reflection of public
thought does not mean standing forit.
That there is a great deal of misoon-
ception, even among journalists, upon this
subject of the formation of and control or
molding of public opinion, cannot be sue
cessfully denied. Some of them mistake
reflection for creation and therein all the
error lies. Our contemporary, the San
Francisco CALL pierces the core of the
question when ii says:
Newspaper influence is q thing which few I'M
derstand. newspaper wields influence when
il is in the right and when its words reach
large audience. When il is in the wrong ii has
not much more influence than man bawling
on the corner of street Influence largely de-
ponds on the instinct which enables an expert
eneed journalist to place himself in sympathy
with his audience so that he feels with them on
the questions of the day. When an editor be-
comes wiser than his reade,s his influence is
gone
Public thought is inde6nable in its
growth. 1t develops none can say Just how
or when. 1t appears, like perspiration
upon the body generally, uniformly and
simultaneously in all parts, if the body
polite is healthy in tone. The press re-
spends to it as do the organs of speech to
the command of the will. 1t fashions it
only so far as, like the ear or the eve, il
conveys to the intelligence the facts that
determine the Judgment So far as the
press Is one Of the units in the community
out of which public opinion comes, it is an
agency influential in the formation Of that
opinion, and by reason of its ability to adj
dress the other units more deliberately
more frequently, and in larger number, it
is unquestionably the more potential OF
those units. The fatal mistake, we repeat,
into which the unskilled journalist falls, is
that he manufacturer public opinion,
and whoever entertains that idea is simpIy
attempting 10 sweep back the sea with
broom.
SANITATION OF CITIES AND TOWNS.
With the approach Of summer the cues
tiou of the sanitation of cities and towns
again assumes public importance. In this
matter we are very much like the tradi-
tional Arkansas contented man. We for