Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-05-22
BLACK SHEEP OF THE PRESS.

The San Francisco Nelrs Letter expresses
the opinion that the average interview of
the daily press has come to be but bad
edition of the village gossip-monger, in
which opinion there will be general con-
currence. There was a time when the
statements of citizens made on public SUBJ
jects, in response to categorical inquiries
propounded by self-respecting representa-
tives of the decent press, were everywhere
accepted as verify. The system of inter-
viewing was, within its original bounds,
most useful method of obtaining valuable
information, and of ascertaining the views
of citizens, with their full consent, whose
opinions upon public questions have
weight in determining public judgment.
But in late years interviewing" has been
SO much abused that, as the San Francisco
paper remarks, it is unreliable and is ac-
cepted by the reading public, if at all,
with extreme doubt of its verify.
A very common form of the abuse is for
the reporter to be sent out under instruc-
tons to secure from the assailed party
certain line of expression. If he is found
to be averse to concurring in the scheme
the reporter enters upon an argument
with his victim, injects the thought he
wishes to impress upon the reader into his
questions, and SO phases the answers of the
unhappy citizen that they are made to
read as approving or in agreement with
the statements embodied in the questions.
This is said to have been the method re-
Gently adopted with ex-President Cleve-
| land.
II, however, the selected party is too
positive and emphatic negative, the
'interviewer's" resort is to belittle the re-
sponses; that is. to still incorporate the
poison in the questions, but make the
answers so weak and facid that the posi-
ton taken by the respondent amounts to a
confession of defeat. 1t is not an uncom-
mon thing for the reporter of the sensa-
tional press to supply both question and
answer; the interviewed" first learning
that he has been Intercepted when he
finds the report" in print.
But perhaps the worst form of the Sin
terview," since downright lies ca- be
trusted to expose themselves sooner or
later, is when the practice is made the
| vehicle of scandal, and the means of
invading the privacy OF the citizen. 1t
is quite useless for anyone to close the
door in the face of one Of these modern
Paul Prys; that very repulse will be con-
torted into tale to crafty mean curiosity
and feed the taste for scandalous recitals.
! In short, the average interviewer" of
the modern sensational press, has neither
bowels of compassion nor heart suscept-
ible to emotions of pity, while the idea of
anyone having a right to the privacy Of
his own affairs never enters into his con-
sideration of decency. As the Ne,us Letter
well puts it:
He is a puryeyor to scandals about his neigh
bors, the stirring of which panders to prurient
tastes, but does nobody any good He is unre-
| liable. IN that he will manufacture embellish-
| ments to story in order to give it q point and
relish. and then, having got his lies into print,
| thinks 1t matter of professional honor to swear
to them through thick and thin. In divorce,
homicide and other cases. he must get at the
inner thoughts that excite angry passions and
lead TO deeds OF violence; or, If he fails as he
mos; frequently does. he straightway supplies
theories of his own as the true facts. and boasts
thereafter OF having ''scooped" his professional
brother OF rival sheet. II it happens that his
statement of alleged interviews suits the theory
OF one side or other in legal proceedings, he
may safely be called as witness He will
| stand boldly by anything he has caused to be
printed. AS no one is so virtuous as to be proof
against the poisoned tongue OF the village gossip
so no one is so silent as to be sure that the in
| terviewer will not make him say things in
print. An ex-President Of the nation had words
put into his mouth the other day that never
| could have come out of 1t, but the reporter
swears they did, aud that settles IL. The inter
viewing Of the period is rendering newspaper
men odious.