The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-12-12

new the Chicago Newspaper Trust serves th,
Pueblo with Fore,En ..Newt."

new the chicago Newspaper Tru.t. scrvs. the
Fubiio with FereiEn News"
Tron the chicago later Ocean, an Associated Pres.
Newspaper.
We explained recently In these columns the
Generalization wrought In the Associated Press
by its present management. We showed how
two members OF the Chicago newspaper trust
had arroRated to themselves the power to pass
judgment on what the American public should
be allowed to road. We demonstrated that news
was distorted and suppressed to suit their pref
udices and business interests. The instances
which we cited to prove our charges concerned
exclusively American affairs. We propose now
to shed q little light on the abuses of the Asso-
ciated Press cable service.
TIL Associated Press obtains most Of its for
eiEn news from tho Reuter- agency in London.
This agency is both respectable and competent,
Handled honestly, It gives n service OF which no
newspaper need be ashamed. But II has not been
handled honestly. This cable service has bcen
made a medium of fraud upon the public. Much
of its report has been turned into the laughing
stock of intelligent men. To delude the patrons
Of tho Associated Press with tho ~pretence of
inexhaustible resources, tho Reuter- dispatches
have been stuffed with lies, heightened " tn
clippings from stale London newspapers. and
pulled out with padding sent over by oiRht-day
chLnc It'll" liNtTUOOl. III nus ucCn uO III
common thing to send West q cable report of
5000 words when the New York Office had re-
ceived barely 500 from London. 1t has been no
uncommon thing to impose on the Associated
Press NJ newspapers a so-callod cable despatch Of a
column. in which only the first twenty or thirty
words were of foreign origin.
Perhaps q concrete example Of what Melville
+. Stones system can do and has done will
make his methods clearer. There was a hurri-
cane on certain islands in the Indian Ocean.
About twenty words on the subject were sent
by cable from London. The able manufacturer
of cable news used the twenty words. Then he
wrote in 200 or 800 moro of the details as he
imagined them. Next he let his fancy run riot
through all the horrors Of human and brute life
caught in such a storm. The London newspa'
pers were not available. as they had not antici.
pated q hurricane. SO the manufacturer OF cable
news skipped them and proceeded to quote the
gazetteer on the geography. population, and
products Of the islands. Finally the encyclo
pedia was drawn upon to furnish a description
of the nearby land and the surrounding water
Thus have cable" dispatches been made un
der Melville E. Stones mismanagement of the
| Associated Press; thus has a great foreign news
service been distorted and demoralized.
1t was with full knowledge of these facts thai
the Inter Ocean arranged for a special cable ser
vice on which it could rely for the truth. We
valued. and still value very highly, the Reuter-
dispatches. but we feel that we must have somt
check on the amazing transformations to which
these dispatches have been subject under Mel
vile E.. Stones mismanaRement of the Asso
ciated Press. 1t Is characteristic of the news
paper trust that, speaking through the Asso
ciatcd Press. 1t presumes to forbid our using thii
check. The opinion Of the members Of the trus
seems to be that anything is good enough TO
the public, providing they say 80.
Gentlemen of the newspaper trust, we prin
lies for nobody. II you wish to print them W,
can only say. follow your preferences. The Intei
Ocean is a newspaper, not a gold brick. 1
prints tho news.