Los Angeles herald., 1891-08-11
A JOURNALISTIC DILEMMA.

tense disgust of the Englishman at the
interviewer is not without warrant, but
the hardship experienced by public
man whose views are sought in some
sudden crisis is as nothing to the woes
of criminal or of the victim of misfor-
tune. The statesman can paralyze his
tormentor by assuming to be as stupid
as brass monkey, but he dares not do
it. He knows very well that, in most
cases, the nimble- Drained reporter is
obliged to write against space; and that,
if the interviewee will not talk, the
ingenious reporter, in nine cases
out of ten, will talk for
him. 1t is bad enough to have to di-
vulge your views to the public before
you are ready, but how infinitely worse
it is to have them presented IN ertenso
without the safeguards and qualifca-
tions with which the reporter
will graciously allow you to hedge
them if you will only give
him column or two for his paper?
1t is in vain that you disavow them
after they are once published. What is
the word of statesman, though he be
Lord Salisbury or Grover Cleveland,
when the public has once been let into
his secret plans? The more earnest his
disclaimers, the more prone the public
is to believe that where there is so much
smoke there must be some fire.
Then take the case of the unfortunate
wight who has been unlucky enough
to get himself shot or stabbed, and who
is lowering on the borders of rhe great
beyond. He is in veritable trouble of
mind and body, and generally the last
person on earth he would wish to see is
tie reporter. He has scarcely been
landed on his cot in the receiving hos
pital, however, before the indefatigable
tribe is upon him. What to them is
the fact that his eyes may be fast glaz-
ing in death? The newspapers and the
public want to know all about the mat
ter to its minutest details. The curios-
ity of the public is insatiate, and they
represent its eagerness for news and
gossip.
No sooner has the reportorial guild
got through with the victim of the
affray, than they move in force on the
individual who is the author OF the up
roar. He, poor fellow, with unstrung
nerves, and perhaps sense OF guilt
already breeding remorse, wishes to see
no one 80 ardently as he wishes not
to see the reporter. He knows that he
ls not in condition to do himself
justice. He knows, also, that he may
be betrayed into admissions that may
compromise his case when it comes to
trial. But, like the hound after the
hare, bounds in the ever restless, deter
mined representative of the daily press.
The prisoner must be more than human
if he resists their opportunities. Before
he has had time to compose his brain to
its customary action, he is subjected
to a cross-examination as search
ing and far more merciless than any he
will encounter in court of law, for
there will be in the prison cell no Judge
to check counsel, or to remind the pris-
oner that he is not obliged to criminate
himself.
But it is perhaps in case OF matrimonial
difficulties that the ingenuity OF the re-
porter is most conspicuous. On the first
intimation of difficulty between an
estranged couple the reporter is at once
willing to assume priestly functions, and
to constitute himself the Father Con-
lessor OF both parties. He concentrates
his attention and abilities upon securing
an exhaustive history of both parties,
and if he can dig outa long line of cores
pondence, which will swell his budget
of scandal to great volume, his happi-
ness is complete. If by throw
ing his dragnet around, he can i'm
plicate others than the parties in inter-
est, his happiness is completed. He does
not care deuce aces how he may compro-
mise persons who are very good people,
as the world goes, and the fact that his
premature publication may make recon-
cliation between the estranged pair for
ever impossible, counts for nothing with
him. His mission is to get a juicy and,
if possible, salacious story. and he sac
rifices everything to that end, knowing
that the public relishes nothing so
much.
That this is the picture of the average
reporter cannot be doubted. That there
are exceptions, who handle such matters
and all others with delicacy and high
principles, is of course true.
The same public that condemns the
extreme picture which we have outlined
makes the role inevitable. st. Paul
described the Athenians as going around
hunting something new. This is the
leading characteristic of the American
people of today. They are volatile and
irrepressible in their pursuit of gossip
and scandal. They will taboo any news
paper that does not kotow to this i'm
pulse. And yet they are inconsistent
enough to sit upon the laches
of the press. 1t is Satan re-
buking sin and the "deyil turned
precisian." If there were not
an overwhelming demand for the kind
of news which is now served out by the
American press the kind of reporter we