The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-05
MAKING OF NEWSPAPERS
FAULTS AND VIRTUES OF THE PRESS
CANDIDLY DISCUSSED.
The WelI-ReguIated Paper Seeks Ac-
curacy Above All Things-HOnOr
shown in Withholding Facts.

Peck, editor of the Bookman and profess
sor of English in Columbia College, INDUCES
in some rather idle talk as to the need of
great national newspaper" which shall be
free from the faults of the existing press
and contain only those features that please
the elect. What he says on that head is too
theoretical to justify discussion, but incl
dentally he treats Of the defects and virtues
OF newspapers in general with so much
more candor and intelligence than the av-
erage critic that his remarks are worth re-
producing. In. speaking of the various
charges commonly made against the daily
papers, he says:
''The first, which relates TO an alleged in
accuracy and even to an intentional falsi-
ncatlon of the news, is very certainly not
justified when looked at in a fair and rea
sonable way And one can say this in spite
OF all that is urged to the contrary and in
spite, too, of the swarm of sporadic in
stances that could be cited by an advocatus
qlaDoH. Just consider for a moment the
Iacts as they confront us priori. A great
newspaper is one of the most gigantic most
highly systematized and most elaborate or
CARNATIONS that can be found in our mod
eln life. 1t has millions of capital invested
in it. 1t has at it's disposal what is in real
ny highly trained army, differed with
ability, industry, executive talent, energy
and enthusiasm 1t commands the services
OF scores of intrepid, indomitable men who
are inspired by the marvellous devotion to
tier calling which is one of the strangest
phases of cur journalism-men who will face
hardship and privation, and even disease
and DEATH for the glory of that impersonal
thing which they have made it their pro-
IeSslon TO serve. The reporter, the news
paper correspondent, is one of the few he
roeS whom the commonplace routine of
modern life has still permitted to survive.
In plague and pestilence, when the bravest
men shrink back and when even the
physician goes about his task with a
bianched and haggard face, there will be
op1 n1lIy opd
march of death. In the heart of the desert
in the savage silence of the tropical jungle,
where a Livingstone or an Emin is sicken-
ing with despair at his hopeless isolation, a
journalist will seek him out and nonchal-
antly greet him. In the thick of the battle,
when bullets are singing like hailstones in
the air and when the commanders them
selves are snugly ensconced over their tele-
graphic instruments in some sheltered spot
a league away, the newspaper correspond
ent will sit his horse in sublime uncon-
seriousness of danger, as he jots down on
his writing pad the fate of armies and the
varying tide of war. The modern journal
sends its ambassadors to foreign countries
and maintains them there at salaries which
many diplomatic chiefs might envy. 1t en-
rolls statesmen and even kings and princes
among those who feed it's columns; and it
has it's finger on the pulse of every center
of civilization throughout the world 1t
pours out money like water, demanding spe-
cial railway service, chartering steamers
end netting the depths of ocean with it's ca
bles. And what. pray is the first and fore
most object of all this organiza ton, all this
energy and effort all this enormous ex-
penditure of life and thought and money?
To get the news; to miss nothing that hap
pens each hour of the day all over the hab-
liable globe. Now, on the face Of it, would
| Shrewd, clear-Sighted men, after laVishing
| all these wonderful resources for one par
| ticular end, be satisfied with half achieve
ment? Would they knowingly corrupt and
render worthless the fruit of all this labor?
| Would they accept complacently what is
| valueless and false, when they have given
| life and brain arc wealth to get that Which
Is accurate and true?
ANXIOUS FOR ACCURACY.
''Men do not risk their time and money,
and their very lives in search of diamonds,
to sit down with bland contentment before
lot of gems all fawed and valualass. A
great merchant will not send his agents
| into every country of the earth with an I'M
! limited commission to stock his warehouses
with the choicest products of all lands and
! then accept from them consignments of
| goods that are damaged or defective. To
| state the proposition is to show it's Grass
| absurdity. And, as matter of fact, the de-
! sire for accuracy is, in the staff of any
| reputable newspaper, as intense is the
| desire for the news itself. No reporter who
| makes serious mistakes can hold his place.
| No correspondent would be tolerated who
| should supply false information.
| But how about the numerous lnaccura-
| cies and falsehoods that do, nevertheless,
| continually appear in the daily press? So
| far as these are less than vital the truth
is simply this. The American newspaper
has the defects of its qualities. 1t must get
together in a few hours the information
for which the readers of a foreign journal
are content to wait as many days. re-
| porter hastens to the scene of some remark
| able occurrence. He examines the ground.
| he questions the witnesses, he sees the doc
uments, if there are any; he finds out what
he can in the hurry and confusion of the
moment and then. perhaps, in another hour
he is telegraphing a connected and !ntelli-
| gible account of the whole affair, or is
hurryng back to the office, very likely not
| ing down his story on a scrap of paper by
| the light of a fiickering oil lamp in a joting
train, himself worn out with excitement.
hungry, haggard from want of sleep and
overcome with bodily and mental fatigue.
His report appears before daylight the next
morning. Tt is a good and faithful nara.
tive. The reader of the paper learns the es-
sential facts as they occurred, and often
finds them told in a vivid, clear-cut way
that is model of concise and picturesque
description. Then what does it really mat
ter if in the course of the story, Mr..
| James p Smith is spoken of as Mr.. James
B. Smith. or if the event is said to have
happened on the northeast instead of on
the southeast corner of such and such a
street? The central facts are there, and it
is with the central facts alone that, as a
general rule, the average reader is con-
cerned. In truth, 1t is most wonderful how,
from a chaotic mass of desultory informa-
ton drawn from confused or ignorant or
unwilling witnesses, the trained reporter
will extract the essential verites, shrewdly
formants, and skillfully compacting the
whole into an intelligent and a consistent
narrative"
AS TO PERSONALITIES.
After discussing sensationalism, which he
finds is often due to immature editorial
Judgment rather than to evil intent, he
reaches the feature most criticised by for
eigners:
''The charge of an excess of personal
| gossip is thoroughly well founded ev
| erybody knows; yet there is much to be
said to modify the 7ensure that is so free
" vented on this feature of American
| Journalism. In the first place, it is not
| only unfair but utterly absurd, to draw
| any parallel here between American and
| foreign journals Our American life is so
| much more open, so much less hedged in
| by formality and retioence, so much freer
| and franker. as to make any such compar-
| ison absolutely misleading. AS people we
live far more in public and take a much
| liyelier interest in one another than is the
| case with Europeans. The difference be-
| tween foreign and American life in this re-
spect is admirably typifed in the difference
| between the foreign and the American
| hotel The former is built around an inner
court with plain and uninviting exterior.
| It's door is guarded by fiunkeys in uniform
who allow no one to pass who is not an
| actual or intending guest of the house, and
even these are sometimes stopped and ques-
| toned The American hotel is everybody's
| rendezvous. It's hall and parlors are the