The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-07-31
A PLEA AGAINST ANONYMOUS JOUR
NALISM.

1t will be long before criticism ceases
to imagine itself controlling force, to
give itself airs of sovereignty, and to
issue DEGREES. As it exists it is mostly
mischief, though not the greatest mis-
chief; but it may be greatly ameliOrated
in character and softened in manner by
the total abolition of anonymity, We
have no hesitation in saying that anony-
nous criticism is almost wholly an abuse,
and we do not cOnfine our meaning here
to literary criticism. Now that nearly
every aspect and nook and corner of life
is searched by print, it is intolerably Op-
pressive that any department of current
literature, or of the phase of literature
we call journalism, should be anony-
nous. Every editorial, every smallest
piece of reporting, that involves per-
sonal matter, should be signed by the
writer, who should be personally ly re-
spOnsible for his words. In free country
where no one can suffer for his opinions,
no one has a right to make another suffer
by them more condemnation than his
individual name can carry. Thanks to
the interviewer, the society reporter, ,an1
the special correspondent, the supersti-
tious awe in which print has been held
is fast vanishing; but print still bears too
great authority. If each piece of it were
signed by the author, its false advantage
would be dissipated.
We believe that journalists generally
have far more conscience in dealing with
events than they are credited with; but
we are afraid that they have also less.
This was some time paradox, but the
situation it suggests would pass with the
temptations and privileges hedging in
the man who shoots from the dark at
man in the light. There ought not to be
any such thing as journalistic authority
which can continue in equal force
through all the changes of personnel in
the journalistic management, and can be
handed on from just and upright man
to a mean and cruel and vindictive man,
and still carry to the reader the weight
of great journals name. If every in
terview were signed, so that the public
might understand that it was relying
upon the accuracy and honesty of this or
that reporter, and not upon the good
faith of the journal whose management
can have no means of verifying the in
terview, the interviewer would cease to
represent anything but himself, and if
he were held direcilty and personally re-
sponsible, it would be much to the
|
of the public. AS it is, he is supposed
to represent the journal which employs
him, and the management is from time
to time obliged to endorse him or dis
claim him. He is called, in his own Ian
guage, the Times representative, or the
Sun representative, or the World repre-
sentative; but as a matter of fact he re-
presents nothing but himself. He can
represent nothing else; and no writer of
leading articles in any journal can repre-
sent anything more. journalistic entity
is baleful fiction. mask which ought
to be torn from the features of the
Browns, Joneses and Robinsons, who
usually wear it. No danger would at
tend these champions of the common
good in free state, if their visors were
lifted, beyond what attends each of us in
our everyday affairs, which we conduct
in person with due regard to law and
the decencies of society. These forbid
us to injure others, or to affront them by
insolent or arrogant behavior, such as
we witness every day in anonymous
journalism.-From the Editors Study,
by William Dean Howells, in Harper s
Magazine for August.