The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-03-21
THE INTERVIEW DENIER.

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
How to deal with the interview dcnier,
who is perpetual nuisance, is q serious
problem for self-respecting newspaDers.
A reporter is sent TO interview somebody
about something. The interview is OBJ
tained anu printed. The interviewed il
represented as saying something that on
reffection, he doesn't want the public to
believe that he has said. In ninety-n,ne
cases out of hundred he is correctly re.
ported and knows it. But that makes no
dinerence TO him. He takes it for grant
ed that his word will outweigh the re-
porter's both with the reporters employ
ers and the public, and rushes off to the
newspaper office to indignantly deny the
interview. He doesn't offer the slightest
proof of the truth of his denial but he in
ssts that it shall be accepted ana pub
lished, that the newspaper, TO obige him.
shall publicly call one of its employees a
liar.
The editor doesn't believe that his re-
porter is a liar. He recognizes that a de-
cent newspaper ought to be willing to
stand by every man it is willing to retain
In it's service. lie knows the interview
denier Of old, appreciates his unreason-
able point of view and doesn't take the
slightest stock in his denial. But what IS
he to do? If he refuses to print the de-
NAL he knows that the denier will get il
printed in some other paper. coupled with
the denier's statement that>the newspa-
per in which the bogus" interview ap-
peared has refused to do him justice. -
So he let's the denier say what he pleases
over his own signature, prints it for
what II is worth" the public accepts 1t
as worth infinitely more than it really is
and the reporter has to grin and bear
it,"
The New York Sun has invented a SIM
pie and efficaclous method of dealing with
the interview dener. The other day a
Sun reporter interviewed Congressman
SulZer. When the interview was prilt-
ed Congressman Sulzer deemed il eXped-
lent to deny it. So he sat down and
wrote to the editor of the Sun the usual
indignant card, 1.-The alleged interview is
false in every particular" etc, etc. Ev-
cry editor knows the formula by heart.
II is possible that the denial was sincere.
Congressman Sulzer's talking-apparatuS
works automatically without the inter-
vention of any mental faculty of his lie
Is generally credited with never knowing
what he is saying so IL is quite probable
that i'm this instance he didn't know
what he had said TO the Sun reporter.
There is, probably, rot the least reason TO
doubt that he was correctly reported. At
any rate the editor of the Sun, from his
knowledge OF the reporter and OF Sulzer,
had no doubt of the correctness of the
printed interview But he published Mr..
Suffers signed denial, adding to il this
significant comment: "The reporter of
the interview referred to by Mr.. Sulzer
reaffims the truth of it,"
O.
Thus the sun did fun justice to Mr..
Sulzer by printing his denial and at the
same time fulfilled the really more i'm
mi at@t loo tn do flKgt 70 l,a
Sun and the Suns reporter by making it
sufficiently clear, spite of the sloppiness
of the English employed for the purpose,
that the Sun believed its reporter and
enjoys the confidence of the Sun and he
didn't believe Mr.. SulZer.