The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-06-13
NEWSPAPERS

NEWSPAPERS
Comments Upon Different Kinds o.
Publications.
The poor newspapers! They may not
be models of virtue, but it is amusing tc
note the frequency and the ferocity with
which the ministry attack them in the
/ brief intervals when that same ministry
is not furnishing them with scandalous
material, OF begging them for free adyer.
tisements. The current number of Lend
written by DR.. Hale and incidentally
mentioning the attempt of the house OF
lords to control the license of the Eng
lish press in reporting criminal trials
The truth is that the American news
papers were checked in their progress
towards deceney by the Beecher trial
4fid again by Mr.. Stead's fabricatioIs
but that, upon the whole, they improve
If the English papers seem worse now
than ever before 1T is partly because the
new divorce laws give them fresh op-
portunities to secure great sales by the
production Of novel evil matter, and
partly because they fancy that they may
equal the artificial success won for q
short time by Mr.. Stead, if they can
equal him in wickedness. Class for
class, they are less coarse In personal
reference than the American papers
Although even Chicago never surpassed
the the cowardly meaness OF the Sat
llrday Reviews recent reference to the
Emperor Williams unfortunate infirm-
ity. The law of libel, and an inferior
sense of humor combine to keep edito-
rial John Bull from insulting the de-
formed and the unfortunate, and a
wholesome fear Of the courts keeps him
from publishing anything concerning
which a judge bids him keep quiet.
Meth English or American Journals en-
joy giving publicity to crime Though the
ministers appear to fancy that they take
pleasure in it. A long report of trial
utterly destroys the symmetry of pa
per, compelling reporters to condense
and recondenee important news; tele-
graph editors to throw away costly
matter; managing editors to sacrifice
columns and pages distributed" with
out being used; and in hundred other
ways increasing the expense of publica-
tion, for the sake of selling a few thou
sand copies at gross profit Of at the
most SIS a thousand.
Nobody knows the difference between
a, good paper and bad paper; a hand
some paper and an ugly paper; a SYM
metrical paper and a journalistic mon
ctpr half wp11 q o6ifnr +
and ministers waste their time in dis
playing their ignorance in regard to the
matter. When their preaching has made
their congregations so modest, so clean
minded and so charitable, that they no
longer insist upon reading scandal and
indecency the editors will cease to print
such matter. The daily paper is the
mirror in which the desires Of the church
going public are reflected side by side
with the deeds Of those neglected by the
churches.
Miss Olive Gorren writing in Scrlb-
ner's Magazine says:-Personalities are
alone responsible for the mere material
bulk to which the American newspaper
has attained. Eliminate everything that
touches upon that ground from the
greater number Of even our best in
formed journals and they would shrink
to half their size. Moreover, at the bot
tom, the aim of the newspaper Of today
is not to give events, facts, as they are.
Even the people who think very little
on the subject realize this, and the news
of every newspaper is accepted with
reservations. The newspaper man ordi-
narily accounted clever by his newspa-
per is not he who sees things in their
relations, in their dependence, in
their place in the general scheme, and
who therefore sees them veraciously, and
is likely. to have acquired an artistic
conscious that makes it impossible for
him to present them other wise. 1t is
he who can make a STORY" out OF what
he has co report. That process Of story
making may involve knowledge of life
sympathy y, the accurate pointo Of view; but
as things commonly go it cannot be said
that it does. What it involves chiefly is
a presentiment OF facts and situations in
such wise that the picture fatters the
preiudices and tastes of the mass OF
readers who, in our country, we must
always remember, are the socially half
cultivated. IT. is the profo foundest truth
that it takes mental training, and disci-
p1ine, and requirement., Of q high order
it really 8is and it lis a truth the least
often nsidered T is more obvious
trl1t but also one 35 consid Tered
that the power e, bs acious mi bs
Iargsl tsit,,de g
s1 &. a Y & q alss
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