The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-03-12
THE NEWSPAPERS OF PARIS
Their Business Methods Are Novel and
Their News Service Very Inferior.
They Will Printa Is News Matter Anything That
Is Paid For. and Their Chief Purpose Is to
Make Money for Their 0wnera

tutions more or less discredited by the
great Panama scandal there Is not one
which appears in a worse light than the
French press. This medium of popular
enlighteu emit. the guide and guard of the
people. as 1t ought to be, is shown to have
been subsidized in the interests of a man,
moth fraud by which money has been
smoked in millions out of the pockets Of
rich and poor alike. Not only this. but 10
is convicted morally of levying black.
mail upon the promoters of thif
fraud. 1t did more than simply receivs
that which was offered to il. It was
not passively bribed to puff this enterprises,
it was an aggressive claimant for bribess
1t seems really to lave been O leader IN
hat band of social briRands who. as
Charles de Lesseps so graphically put 1t.
went at the directors with drawn knives,
and IN true highway style demanded theiI
money or their lives. Happily this does not
apply to all the Parisian newspapers. There
were honorable exceptions. Not enough,
however. to redeem the craft from disgrace.
or to turn the sharp edge of censure from
the French press considered as an lnstitu-
ton.
To American thought these revelations
are all the more astounding because, as il
appears at present. no steps are TO be taken
10 punish them. The papers involved pur.
sue their career as though nothing had
happened. Editors and publishers. far from
feeling themselves disgraced, seem rather
to be taking pride in the excellent manage
ment they displayed We have not dis
covered. either. that there is any marked
indignation towards them on the part of
their deluded constituency, the great
French public. Popular sentiment may
chang &c after a time, but at present il seems
to look upon this latest expose of the
venaIity OF the press with remarkable LEM
ieDcy; almost. In fact, with indifference.
Nor IS it difficult to account for this.
Judged by Its own recognized standards
the French press has only acted In this
instance as it usually acts. and has done
nothing but what is strictly proper. It's
columns ere always for sale. Between ad.
yertisements and editorial puts the line oil
demarcarion is very dim. and in many pa
pers it vanishcs completely out of sight.
QUEER BUSINESS
1t could hardly be said. perhaps, that it ID
customary for French newspapers to sell
their influence to schemes of fraud. But
they constantly sell it for ordinary business
purposes. and many of them are bought mp
Regularly DJ bkoutc VI tuc GONcTDu1cuk
This is no secret, and we have not heard
that either the government. the newspa-
pers or any body else concerned has any
feeling of shame on the So beet. Is regards
the papers, they openly d vertise that they
will publish what is sent to them, and the
rates are given. The tariff In ordinary
cases is from So to IS a line. and ID
is understood, of course. that what
is put in at these rates will appear
as ordinary reading matter. with the tacit
Endorsement ot the journal which publishes
il. Even society and the great world Of
art are subsidized in this fashion. Youmay
be quite sure that every notice yoa read OF
O wedding party, a society ball, or o the
atrical performance has been paid for at q
steep rate. and as TO the many disguised
mercantile ads which the papers palm off
upon the reading public. every body under
stends-at least every well informed per-
son in France does-that as a rule they Will
be indifferent, ELUSIVE or superlative in
their terms. according gig as the client may
have approximated to these degrees in the
necessary check furnished for prepay.
mept.
Here is q good introduction, though NOT
q very hattering one, 10 u few notes upon
the French press In general BY this We
mean emphatlcally the Partisan press. foI
whether Paris is france in any other sense
or not, it certainly 10 in this. Outside of
this city there are scarcely any papers
worth naming. and what is moro to the
point, we should find none IN Paris
itself worth naming If we judged
them by American ideals. The ordinary
size Is four pages. the paper used
being wretchedly poor, and the appear.
ance n make up hardly equal ia
that of our average Shantytown Gazette.
Partisan newspapers have been divided
into two classes, the grave and the gay,
with the Temps as the representative of the
former and the Figaro as the best type OF
the latter. Needless to say that in the gay
capital OF France newspapers of a decid-
edIy frivolous bent are largely in the as
cendant. and it may be taken equally as q
matter of course that the sort of gayety
which is most predominant has q decidedly
personal flavor. with not q little admixtura
of scandal In II.
AS to the serious journals. those which
make @ pretense of being real newspaper
and of keeping their readers in touch with
current events, one can only say, judging
again from the American standpoint. that
the Paris newspapers which aim at thid
object fall woefully wide of the mark En-
terprise and freshness are two words OF
which they seem quite ignorant. For fors
eign and provincial Items they depend
almost entirely upon news agencies. In
fact, only q few are subscribers even
to these; the great mass get what little
outsiG o news they deign TO publish Dy clip-
pings which are often venerable with age.
Not one of them has q correspondent in the
United States. and when the reader only
thinks that representatives OF the Amerl-
can press are to be found In every country
under the sun, and that the columns OF
American papers TEEN with European cor
reepondence. much of it from France, he
Will have before him the data for q fair
comparison between American newspapers
enterprise and that poor apology for the
real thing which goes by this name in the
largest city of the European continent.
INEFFICIENT NEWS SERVICE.
We had thought the English papers slow
enough. and everybody knows they are
heavy enough, with their ponderous lead
ing articles, their solemn regard for unim-
portant details, and their page after page
of closely set advertising matter. The
English papers. however, do at least give
you the new of the day. In fact, they
give You a fair resume. excepting from ouI
side OF the Atlantic. of the news of the
world. But the Partisan press does not
give anything like a fair summary OF
the news of France; not even OF
Paris. 1t is against it's pollcy ia
do so. With these French papers
news Is q mere incident. The great thing ID
to make a sensation. and the next. to afford
examples of fine writing. while another
very obvious purpose is TO enable scribbierl
to write themselves into notoriety. which
they can do more easily IN France than
either in England or America, because, &C
q rule. all articles here are signed.
Perhaps, though. we ought TO revise this
classification. and say that French papers
are run chiefly to make money. and to dc
this by whatever means may promise the
surest and quickest returns. Speaking OF
advertisements in English papers. IL IL
anything but pleasant 10 take up the Lon
don telegraph and find It's eight pages