The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-04-23
LURID NEWS REPORTING.

The San Francisco Bulletin of Thurs
day says:
Some of the newspapers in this city have
Gone more harm TO the community by the
sensational reports they have sent out of the
recent slight temblors than was caused by all
the earthquakes that have occurred in this
state during the last thirty years. There is
no excuse for such Misrepresentation exag-
gerated as 1t has been by q series of pictorial
illustrations calculated to produce the i'm
preston OF general wreck and ruin. No doubt
llere has been some damage done to property
IN limited district in the Interior but there
is not single loss OF life reported. II every
ramshackle building in that district had
tumpied down the damage there would have
been trifllng compared with that occaSioned
by the sensational reports. What idea would
all the outside public get from examining
these newspapers? 1T would be that a great
earthquake had occurred here which had
done immense damage. In two instances
noted newspapers published nearly a column
OF displayed headlines. every sentence of
which was either an outright falsehood or
was calculated TO convey a false impression
OF the extent and results of the recent tenn
blors.
This is plain and straightforward
statement of the truth. The faults of con-
struction in our country towns are not
once referred to by the sensational sheets,
when, as matter of fact, all the damage
done is due to the poorly erected. thin
walled and unanchored brick buildings
that have been put up in scrambling
sort of way. Even adobe walls-sun-
dried mud-are pictured as in ruins,
when everyone knows that they possess
no elements Of strength, and could be
washed down with common hose-pipe.
These foolish, exaggerated and faulty
reports, as the Bulletin well says, if con-
fined to this State would do little harm,
but sent abroad they will create false i'm
pressions that cannot be easily removed.
Years ago an impression was created by ex
aggerated reports that California was land
of earthquakes. II took q long time 10 etfaep
that impression. Gradually the conviction
came about that hardly any other section of
the country was so Tree from elementary dis
turbanceS OF serious nature than California
There are no cyclones and no hurricaneS-aDd
no earthquakes that have ever done a 1.-THE of
the damage that has been wrought by ele-
mental conflicts in other parts of the country
These were the solid facts on which public
opinion firmly rested. Now comes another
assault on the interests Of the State by indis-
Greet sensauonalists.
There is one comfort in the matter, how
ever-that is, our people will, by the
present example of the folly ard wicked
ness of sensational journalism, be better
able to estimate the real worth and to
measure the absolute injury to the State
of the method of news printing referred
to. They will be the better able to probe
the news reports and separate the careful
and conscientious from that which is
froth and surface and that sacrifices
everything to loud sensation and lurid
news reporting. But, unfortunately,
people at the East will be apt to take
these exclamation sheets as representa-
tives of the whole truth.