The morning call., 1893-02-13

Under this heating comes the following
most extraordinary statement:
The sole object and aim in lie Of The average
rerOrter i 10 GET scoops" for The paper with
which he il connected. Journalists may be aclu-
afed by high and lofty purpose and desire 10
reform 0l eeYales lie world 10 matters ot morals.
politics. tie Stage oi orthodoxy, but TIE real
reporter las only scoops IN view, ana 10 dcHl We
one lie vii stop al nothing, save some OF Tue
more serious crimes Of Tie ealenddT, aud uol
always ihen.
1.-THE reporter who wrote this meant what
he said. s. hat reputable paper in this city or
elsewhere would employ him for as long
time as I've minutes?
Who Ould employ man in any Teputa-
lie business who would only stop at more
serious crime'-not crime merely. not n
commonly serious crime, but more serious
crme-to gain his point? And mind you,
mot always then"
In its best style the Examiner tells how
the steamer Australia, which bore tie news,
was net by special tug on which was one
Of It's reporters, who thus obtained its So
called scoop"
The many thousands who read TIE CALL
on Thursday morning and perused therein
tie news Of Minister Stevens action in
Hawai- are wondering what the Examiner
calls a scoop"
Ia ordinary parlance that newspaper OBJ
tains scoop" which secures the exclusive
publication of an interesting : iece Of news.
The bigger the news the bigger the scoop.
Blu, The Examiner scoop" is evidently
not built that way. Il is independent Of
every other paper and exists in It's own
Imagination alone. totally regardless Of the
publication in contemporaries Of the same
news
1t is SO easy TO run up a headline aud
blow out one Of these frotby scoops" by
~ eans Of gaseous putting among theatre
cal soapsuls.
II an eclipse Of the sun darkened all San
Francisco al noon this disingenuous news
paper" might send up balloon and the next
morning claim the eclipse as a scoop"
II Queen Victoria dropped in on Us and
graci0usly granted an interview to every
newspaper in town this extraordinary
payer would probably come out and claim
another scoop"
The ordinary citizen cares little where or
how paper secured the news the night be-
fore 50 long as be can read it in the morn
Ing. THIS self-lauda.ion strikes him as a
cheap business At best. and this continual
shrek Of Scoop is an indication Of self
mistrust and conscious weakness.
Enterprise is properly appreciated in the
newspaper world as in other business
worlds. but time IS a stern sitter Of sham
"enterpTise"; and. as tine rolls Oh, the
local opinions Of the Examiner and taking
news" are often heard in close connection.
Every newspaper man and nearly every
citizen knows that scoops" may happen,
Ike accidents, IN the best-regulated journals.
but il has always been held dishOnorable to
lag false claims TO these peculiar triumphs.
When they really occur the triumphant
paper naturally triumphs. and the defeated
papers accept the situation with a good
grace Il is a giVe-and-take game at best,
in which all papers can be in turn winners
if the game be fairly played.
But when a scoop" is claimed by any
paper when it knows that its claim can be
ridiculed by the mere parallelng OF its
columns with those Of a contemporary, the
disease Of this false scooping" seems to
have reached an almost hopeless stage
The particular scoop" now referred to
bore relation to the fsg-raising news from
tie Hawaiian Islands, of which the follow
ing extracts from The CALI, Examiner
aud Chronicle Of Thursday morning are a
brief summary:
THE CALL THE ExANISER- THE cHR0NIcLE
Thurs. Feb q - Fab o