The record-union., 1895-02-25
OTHER EXAMPLES OF MEND
CIOUS JOURNALISM.

| United States District Court in San Fran
cisco the Chief and Captain of Police of
this city were last week called to the wit
ness stand. In some of the San Francisco
newspapers it was published that these
two officials testified that the police of
Sacramento had no difficulty with the
strikers here; that there was at no time
any necessity for calling out the National
I Guard; that the police of Sacramento
could have controlled the mob and that
the strikers would have dispersed
! quietly on command of the police at any
moment, had there been no interference
| by troops.
Assuming these reports of the testi-
mony of two of our leading officials to be
correct, and knowing the statement at
tributed to them to be absolutely untrue,
| the people Of Sacramento were, to put it
mildly, astounded, in fact dumbfounded
to a degree that rendered protest tor few
hours out Of the question.
Now come the two police officials and
not only deny that they so testified, but
add that their testimony was directly the
reverse; that they both on oath testified
that with the small force at command of
the Chief of Police he was utterly unable
to disperse the strikers; that the latter
/ were tumultuous, defiant mobs of many
/ hundreds OF men, wild with excitement,
and that when the Chief did interfere to
| his force was scorned, resisted, overcome
and routed, until he plainly saw that it
was impossible for him with his fifteen
men, all told, to protect the people and
their property and suppress such an
armed mob as held the city in its grasp,
cowed the entire community and defed
official interference during the eventful
| days of July and the weeks of terrorism
succeeding.
Yet certain leading" journals of the
metropolis. whose boast is that they are
newspapers, conseryators of public inter-
ests, opponents of public opinion and
faithful chroniclers of events, not only
report as sworn testimony given in open
court and in the face of the stenographic
record of the court, absolute untruth,
but unblushingly put it in the mouths OF
witnesses that they must have known
would expose the shameless lying. The
most riotous fancy fails to draw a
| picture anywhere near accurate of the
moral degeneracy of press that can be
guilty of such mendaclty.
| So late as Friday last State official
who has his residence in San Francisco
| informed the RECORD UNION that in the
matter of the sensational charges con-
! corning mismanagement and waste,
faulty construction and cheat in the adj
ministration of the Board of Harbor
Commissioners in the construction of the
sea-wall and the union depot and ferry
landings, certain reporters OF the San
! Francisco press who had been sent to
inquire into affairs, being shown all there
! is to see and given free access to books
/ and papers, remarked that they could
| discover nothing justitying adverse COM
| ment and charges of corruption or in
! efficiency, but that they would be COM
/ PEELED to write their reports in directly
opposite vein; that they were sent to find
the sensational, and if they could not do
/ 81 thaV rllIst manufacture if
All of which emphasizes and goes to
| establish our repeated charge that the
I general rule in most of the San Francisco
newspaper offices is, make some one
/ squeal, no matter whether there is truth
! in it or not Make your reports read sem
sationally, regardless of the facts. The
| public want excitement, and we must
/ give it to them"
Another instance among many that we
( might give, will serve TO illustrate the
| policy that actuates the springs of energy
in san Francisco journalism. At the
| time the newspapers of San Francisco
were engaged il prejudicing public senti-
ment against the commission or board
that selected the site for the San Fran
| cisco Postotiice, and were filling columns
daily with misrepresentation concerning
the physical character of the site, a
well-known citizen called upon one of
The chief spirits Of a leading San Fran
cisco newspaper to protest against mis-
representation aud grossly unfair assault.
Said be, Il am told that years ago you
lived near to the site. that you then
climbed over a lofty sandhill on that
identical spot TO pay social visits to a lady
you esteemed, and that The site was then
high firm hill; is that true?" The reply
was, sit certainly is true" Then why
do you now say that the site is bog,
always was, has no bottom, and never
had?" Because" was the reply. 1--WE
must say so to make things read well
and because it is our policy to compel the
authorities to abandon the Site" That
ended the interview, and opened the eyes
of the citizen very wide to the inward
ness of San Francisco journalism.
| The San Francisco Chronicle says that
/ "a