The record-union., 1899-04-30
NEWSPAPER STANDARDS.

liz LUIS <AllStltS IlSCOIQ lc1yS OOW II
a code for newspapers looking to an
exceedingly lofty but not unattainabla
standard. Our contemporary says:
Like Caesars wife, newspapers should
be above suspicion. If a wrong is to be
Tighted a newspaper should go fearless
ly forward and smite down corruption,
both in high and in low places. There
need be no great Shrek, no unduly loud
soundinyS of the lutte, harp and psaltry,
NO vainglorious boaSting. A calm, con-
sentative statement of the facts and
an appeal to those in authority will, as
a rule, bring about the desired investi-
cation, and fix the blame where it be-
longs. The Importance and weight at
tached to the investigation will gener-
ally vary directly with the standing of
the paper in the community. Above
all 1t is necessary that there should be
a singlenesS of purpose in the newSpa-
per's denunciations. The slightest sus-
picion of a dual motive will nullify the
effect of any work, however laudable
the work may be, that the newspaper
sets forth to accomplish.
That is to say a newspaper should
be bold, not Wanting its own praises;
conservative in method, unsensational.
insistent upon the truth, fearless in
giving publicity to that which concerns
the public, unsparing in condemnation,
but just in all things; single in purpose.
and that purpose the presentation of
the truth to the best of it's ability to
understand and voice it.
Nor is this ideal difficult to attain;
certainly, not more SO ON the part Of
individual. In short, the ethics of a
clean, noble, useful life applied to jour-
nalisTn Will give us a pure, truthful,
cou1 ageous and useful newspaper. But
newspapers, being the products Of men,
are not often found to be free from the
defects Of human nature. That which
operates to the decentralization of the
individual also obtains in the business
of publishing a paper. 1t is exposed to
the same temptations, the same appeals
for mercy, the same mernoralizing for
the suspension of the sword of justice,
the same address to the selfish and the
acquisitive in our natures.
But It Is hopeful and helpful when
umns frankly set forth the requisites
for the ideal journal. and approve Of
them without any excuses offered for
weaknesses, and for falling short of the
standard ofNright conduct 1t is too
much the plea of journalists that they
give the public what it demands; very
often that which good judgment and
conscience disapprove. This is, indeed,
the common plea in defense of those
faults in Journalism which excite crit
icism.
It might be we'll to ask those who adj
vance the excuse as a cover and shield
for conscience, how they ascertain just
what the public wants? Whether they
have ever truly consulted the public
in the matter? Whether they do not
mistake the morbid taste and the
clanlor Of those who revel in sensation
alism, the lurid and the scandalous for
the voice of the public, when in fact
the greater number of men if consulted
would be found to condemn the very
practice excused under the plea re-
ferred to.
For we believe it to be fact that the
great majority of readers of the day
prefer the cleanly, non-sensational, con-
servative, coura geous and modest pa
per; that if they read and support the
other orders it is because they are I'M
der duress, so to speak, and are driven
to read the sheets whose methods they
disapprove, because these occupy fields
and engage facilities for news gathering
and dissemination, which only a few OF
the better order do
If this is a reflection upon the more
clearly press, it is nevertheless true
that as a rule in avoiding the unsensa-
tiona and in rejecting those features
which offend, they often go to the other
extreme, and not a few of them give
us too heavy and colorless results de-
void of the crispness, vivacity. humol
and variety, which spice good reading.
The happy medium is the paper which
gives the worlds news as it comes to il