The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-09-17
HELENA RECORD FALSELY RE
PORTS M,KINLEY'S DEATH.
HARD on YELLOW ONE
Baseless Canard Roundly Denounced
by Victims of Saffron Hued
Publication.
From Saturdays Daily Gazette.

From Saturdays Daily Gazette.
All honor must be accorded the
Helena Record as Montana's exem-
plar of saffron hued journalism. Re-
peatedly convicted of taking and
Misrepresentation, it reached the sub
Unity of unreliability yesterday
morning, when it wired to it's local
representative that the president was
dead. The bulletin was posted at
once, of course, for that purpose it
was sent, and almost instantly the
city was in a turmoil of grief. From
lip to lip the awful news was passed
and in a few minutes flags began to
appear at half-mast and other evil
dences of mourning and the sorrow
felt by the community were mani
tested.
Taken in by the fraud, a local sheet
stole the bulletin" bodily and used
it as a basis Of an extra" which
boys peddled about the streets. When
the excitement was at it's highest
The Gazette received a brief dispatch
from the Associated Press contradict
ing the reports sent out by the so
called Jews agency from which the
Helena yellow boy gets it's alleged
press report and said that instead
of being dead, the president at that
moment was much better than he
had been at the same time on the
previous day.
To allay the excitement aud give
the public the truth, The Gazette bull
letined it's good news in the down.
town district and instantly the minds
of the people underwent a change.
Some cheered, others wildly shook
hands with those about them, while
still others sought to give vent to
their feelings by roundly denouncing
a publication that would play on the
sorrow of a community by spreading
false news of the nature of that sent
out by the Record. Some of the
flags which had been half masted
were taken down altogether, while
others were hoisted to the peaks of
the stats from which they were float
ing as tokens of the joy which The
Gazette's bulletin had brought to the
people.
Later the Record sent another bull
letin contradicting the first and also
a lengthy explanation, but the public
had had enough and declined to be
further guided by the falsifie1s in it's
quest of news. For that reason but
little attention was paid to it's subse-
quent dispatches to it's agent purport-
ing to give information as to the con-
dition of the president during the
rest Of the day. When a Gazette bull
letin was displayed, however, crowds
%thronged about the board and eagerly
read and re-read the news given. The
people had learned that it was useless
to regard as reliable anything emanat-
ing from the Helena yellow one and
treated it's bulletins accordingly.
Simply to give an idea of the man
ner in which the Records fake is
regarded by the solid, substantial
people of Billings a few expressions
OF those who were taken in by the
fraud are given.
o. F. Goddard: my opinion is
that a newspaper like the Record
ought to copy all of it's news from
Associated Press newspapers. Then
it would be on the safe side. The
error that the Record made is no
surprise to me and it ought to be a
warning to the public not to place
any reliance in anything that appears
in that sheet. In it's desperate eff
forts to ecure scoops over it's com
petitors the Record is capable of pub.
fishing anything but the truth. The
news coming from the Record did
not shock me very much, as l doubted
it and waited for an Associated Press
bulletin for information. If you read
it in the Helena Record pronounce
it a fake"
DR.. ]. H. Rinehart: "My opinion
is that if the government takes any
steps to suppress anarchy it ought
to include the suppression of news
papers that send out such news as
was sent here this morning by the
Helena Record. The telegram was
an outrage upon the community. The
Record will have to show me- here
after before I take any stock in it's
news"
Judge Fraser: "My opinion of that
kind Of journalism is that it is a fake
Of the worst kind. The Helena Rec
ord should be compelled to attach the
afidavit of some reputable person to