The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1891-06-13
ABOUT NEWS.

neWS. AS uelineu by tne photographer
news is fresh information of something
that has lately taken place, or something
before unknown, tidings, intelligence, re-
cent account, etc. We are told in Eccle.
%siastes: "There is no new thing under
the sum- therefore a new thing is not
news under the old-timc acceptation OF
the term news But defining the word
In its brOadest sense it is 'frcsh informa.
ton" to the hearcr. The public calls
that news which it has not heard before,
but it recognizes quality as we'll as guam
tity in news. There is certain kind of
news which, paradoxical as it may APP
pear. is not news. 1t may be called
news, by very fresh and Young newspaper
men, because it is fresh information. but
no n save an idiot. or one lost to all
moral sensibilitics would think of pub-
fishing all 'fresh information simply
because il stands as a synonym of news.
The human jackal may nose around in
the back yards and kitchens and garbage
piles Of society and find very fresh in
formation but it loses the character
of news as soon as it is thrust in the
faces of respectable people. 1t then be-
comes rot, or moral pestilence, or Il social
stink which none but those lost TO all
sense of decency and shame would dig
up and parade before the public.
Shakespeare says: Though it be
honest, it is never good to bring bad
news. I'll tidings tell themselves" and
adds elsewhere:
Yet the first hringer of unwplcome news
HATH but u losing Office: and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell.
knolling a departed friend"
1t is hardly necessary to state here that
Shakespeare could not have retained a
position as reporter upon some of the
so-called newspapers of the day. And
this brings us to the consideration of the
oft asked question: What is news? The
definition Of photographers has been
given, but that will not do for newspa-
per men, and it is Of news" as it pre-
sents Itself to newspaper men we desire
to speak. One says: ut Is presumed
that after action has once been com
menced against a party the facts as sta
ted before the court become public prop
crty," the inference being that if cnr'
facts become public property t. ..s..-
facts become Legitimate news.
Now no greater mistake is m;uc by
young. green newspaper reporters than
by publishing as news all such public
property. They seem to forget that it is
not so much what is put into a paper
makes it acceptable to the public
generally as what is kept out of it. 1t is
Il very easy matter to fill out two or
three columns of matter and palm it off
upon the reading public as news, but it
is not such an easy matter to hold the
names Of the readers upon the subscrip-
ton books of the paper. Because facts
public property it does not fol-
they become legitimate news for a
newspaper. The police courts, the
lives, the streets, and the walks of pri-
life are full of fresh information
unfit for publication, and no one but a
-yro. a fool, or a knave would publish it.
Scandal is a broth cooked in the devils
,wn kitchen, and there it should remain.
Then what is news in a newspaper
sense: AS the TRIBUNE views it news
: that quality of information which may
read in the family circle, in mixed as
;emblies, in the school-room. or in our
churches, if necessary, without bringing
blush of shame to the mother, the
wife, or the daughter. Therefore we say
here is news and news; the one lcgiti-
nate, which adds to the stock of general
Information to be treasured and protited
~; the other Legitimate, which, like all
,thcr offensive matter, should be per-
nitted to lie undisturbed in the secret
burial to which the public has con
signed 1t.