The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-07-17
A GOOD REQUEST. BUT

The women Friends of Maryland, Vir-
ginia and Pennsylvania, had read before
the National Editorial association now in
convention at st. Paul, communication
urging that action be taken looking to the
omission Of the details in the reports OF
crime, including suicides, scandals.
breaches of faith and honor, and so on. In
harmony with this request Editor PABoR,
of Denver, offered resolution urging the
judicious use of the blue pencil on sensa-
tional and criminal reports, and reciting
that the purer the tone of a newspaper the
more powerful for good 1T becomes. The
resolution was referred TO committee. II
will probably be reported favorably, and
will thus go out as the expression
of the best judgment of the editors
assembled, and that will be the
last Of it. 1t may be doubted that there
is one in ten of the thousands of editors in
the United States who is not in full sym
pathy with the cause pleaded by the gentle
Friends Whatever else may be said Of
the men who run" the newspapers, it can
not be successfully charged that they are
more immoral this other men, or that they
delight to revel in fifth and nastiness. The
right thinking editor is not pleased when
ne sees his paper Astounding in dirt" He
writes and reads the filthy stories which
society furnishes with quite as much dis
gust as the people can feel when perusing
them. He shudders at the horrible de-
tails OF crime, and is ashamed when
peculiarly offensive scandals are
told about. And yet, what is he to do. How
can ne avoid these things! These women
Friends will say that he should say nothing
about the scandals, and should confine the
account of crime to bare announcement of
the fact that the crime had been commit
ted, studiously avoiding details. This
would please the great majority of journal
lists quite as much as it could the Friends
people; but it cannot be done until the
natures Of the great mass Of newspaper
readers have been changed and the desire
for the sensational if not the suggestive
been largely eliminated. 1t may be
replied that the newspapers are re-
sponsible for this desire; that they
they have inspired it in the people; and
the answer may be true. We shall not
attempt to argue the point; but we state a
fact which journalists will not attempt to
refute, that it is the popular demand for
the sensational, for the details of crimes,
for scandals and we might almost say for
nastiness so long as it does not border on
indecency, which forces these things into
the columns OF newspapers. The other day
four men were executed by electricity in
the Sing Sing prison, New York. The law
specifically forbids the printing of any of
the details of such executions, making it a
misdemeanor to publish more than the
bare announcement of the fact; but the
public demanded the full details and the
great dailies held forces of reporters in the
neighborhood OF the prison for hours to try
to get these details to satisfy the public de-
maud. The accounts which went most int
detail were most satisfactory to the public,
and the people would have had no use for
a newspaper which contented itself with
saving: ssFour men were electrocuted al
Sing Sing this morning." The journalist
who would undertake TO please the better
sentiment as expressed by the ladies whose
appeal was read in the editorial convention
HOulQ SOOu DC AO1CCa OuS Va ShC nCWSpdDeT
business.
There is just one way to bring about the
reform that is sought, and that is to inspire
public sentiment strong enough to be
influential against sensation and ugly
details in news accounts. AS Long
as the sentiment is strongly the other way
the evil will continue and expand. Those
editors who vote in favor of Mr. PABoR's
blue pencil resolution will return to their
homes and keep eyes and ears open for
crimes ard scandals. and in their accounts
will continue to elaborate and 60 into de-
tails, not because they personally delight
in such things, but because they know that
nine out Of ten Of their readers demand
them, and the tenth would be very apt to
hunt up the other paper if his own journal
did not mako the most Of the scandals and
repulsive crimes