The record-union., 1893-10-28
SENSATIONAL JOURNALISM.

NhS OA tno IdOl6S connected Win the
movement for the publication of the
press, In published interview, declares
that it is not the object of the movement
to=antagonize sensational newspapers, or
to attempt to force them to accept the
reform; that the object of the movement
is to prove that the majority of people in
California do not enjoy the sensational
ism found in the columns of the press,
and then leave the result to the discretion
OF the publishers.
Ii this is all there is in this movement,
1t will have few days, possibly a few
weeks, run as an item of interest in the
columns of newspapers. Every news
paper, even including those of the sensa-
tional GLASS, will approve of the move
ment, and then at the end of few days
or few weeks it will die and be heard
of no more for years.
Publishers have an excellent oppor-
funity of knowing what the public will
buy. They are in the possession OF sta
tistical facts not accessible to other peo-
pie. They find when they publish a
sensational story, however nasty, that
the paper sells; that decent families with
growing daughters buy the paper, or
have it left at their door steps; that the
paper may be reeking with prurient sug-
gestion, beastial detail and gross sensual
ity, and yet decent people, or people who
think themselves decent, will buy it and
pay for it and make its reading accessible
to their children.
If the ladies of California are inaugural
ing movement simply to show that
there are some people yet living who
the prostitution of public morals con-
stantly practiced by sensational journal
ism they are attempting weak and
ineffective thing. The publisher who
admits to his columns the bestial details
of divorce scandals, ''c1Ina-c0n cases" )"
seductions, abortions, and the like, be-
cause the paper will sell, will not be
amenable to the argument which the
ladies propose to present. And when
the amiable lady stated to an interviewer
that the society did not want to an
tagonize these newspapers she was griev-
ously mistaken in the methods by which
reforms are accomplished. If all the
people who have sufficient intelligence
to understand the effect of sensational
journalism upon the morals of the rising
and the arisen generation will simply
refuse to allow a sensational paper to
come into their homes they will neutral
ize the influence the patronage of the
dens of vice has upon the course of these
papers.
The case may be stated in nutshell.
Every publisher publishes what he ad-
mits to his columns because he believes
the readers wish to read it. Therefore
the publisher who admits to his columns
obscene matter does it for pay. He ex-
poets to get that pay through the sale of
the paper and the increase of circulation,
and the increase of advertising due to
that circulation. He will not need a
different mental condition to take pay to
publish the most obscene stuff in the
world, if there is any money being ex-
pended in that direction. Failing to get
pay from some one who desires to de-
moralize the public, he gets his pay by
indirection; the publication of obscenity
and the resultant immortality is paid for
by subscribers and advertisers, and it is
to attract such subscriptions and such ad-
vertsements that the obscenity and
nastiness are admitted to his columns.
The fact is there is market for obscene
literature, while on the other hand, there
is but a feeble protest against its intro
duction into decent families. If there
fore decency would refuse the patronage
which the publisher hopes to gain by the
publication of obscenity, he would have
something to lose as well as something to
gain.
1t follows that if the published inter
view is to be accepted as an indication OF
the character of this movement, things
will be worse than if it had not been un-
dertaken. It will confirm the publishers
of obscene newspapers in San Francisco
in the opinion that by the publication OF
obscene matter they have much to gain
and nothing to lose. This movement will
accomplish a vast good, if it organizes
into effective operation a determination
on the party of decency to resent the pub
hcation of impure matter. and to with
hold its patronage from all papers offend
ing this way. So long as newspapers find
the road to indeceney profitable and so
long as papers acquire ''the largest circu-
lation" through the publication of debas-
ing criminal details, that long publishers
will be found to publish tat selass OF
newspaper. 1t Is an undeniable tact that
the quickest way to build up a great cir
culation is to print carrion newspaper,
not because the vultures are more numer-
Gus than all other species of birds, but
because all other species of birds viii sit
down to feast with the vultures and
without protest.