The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1902-07-17

TRUTH And JOURNALISM.

Educational association last week
Archbishop ireland spoke on ''Devo-
ton to the Truth" and he thought
there ought to be more truth in Jour,
nalism.; The truth is usually there,
but is ''crushed to EARTH" too often.
but it is a good thing for the world
that the truth is not brought out more
clearly by the press, for what an aw.s
full looking picture the world would
make if the press told the truth. The
world as seen in a busy newspaper Of.
flee and the world as reflected in the
press are indeed two different worlds.
One is the true world with all its warts
and wrinkles, deceit, deception, dishon-
or, JOY, ecstacy, delight, sorrow, sin, sre-
morse, the dark, and loathsome depths
of shame, and the thrones lit up with
pure and noble sacrifice. What pic
ture! The world as pictured in the
press has many Of these shades, but it
is principally the shadow and not the
substance. Every issue of great
daily newspaper is world drama and
to read it the world gets enough of the
lights and shadows of life. To picture
the world in it's raw colors and as it
really is would be to make blood start
from heart of stone. -:
To extract the truth from the great
mass of news and information that comes
to the average metropolitan paper
is almost an impossibilty. The press
is largely made up of other peoples
opinions, for the press must depend for
most of its news on press bureaus and
correspondents. The editors Gull from
the news that is sent in from these
agencies, giving due prominence to
such items as they see fit. In this
work they are guided by the policy of
the paper. ~
It>cannot be denied, however, that
the daily newspaper of the present
time is very unlike the daily newspa-
per OF fifty years ago when daily news
papers reflected so often the individual
views of the editor-in.chief. Those
were the days of great journalists, who
made their power and influence felt.
But 1t was not so much matter of
telling the truth as it was of being
fearless and independent. To-day it
is different. Blocks of stock do the
debating and the editor gets his in
aspiration too often from the business
Office where the journalistic throttle is
controlled. The editorial page of the
average daily paper OF to-day is made
up OF essays~and there are few: phillip
pics. TO often the press IS wrapped in
municipal and corporate meshes and
there is string to it's opinions. But
times have changed. A daily news
paper of the present time is not what
it was few years ago, and it requires
vast amount of capital and an army
of reporters and writer's. This is an
era of composite and not individual
journalism. The editorial 1--WE" is a
thing of the past. It is only a Pulit-
zer or a Hearst that can crafty his
individual desires and express opinions
in the field. of journalism, but the
yellow hue of such journalism destroys
in a large measure the Influences of
the papers for good. In the days when
Horace Greeley was a power and the
New York Tribune: ranked second to
the family bible in the American
household, reading matter was very
scarce and the house that had a bible.
an almanac and a newspaper had a
library. Greeley was great journal
ist and he made the Tribune a power,
but did he live in the present age of
free public libraries, book agents and
thousand avenues and agencies for
reading matter and information it
would not be possible for him to reach
the zenith which he did in journalism.
Then, too, journalism has changed
radically in the last few years. The
paragraph has taken the place of the
''leader'' or long editorial, as light
opera has taken the place of tragedy.
The editorial page is not read nor
studied in these days like it was years
ago when people were not as we'll in
formed as at present, and yet in this
respect the press is yet great power
for good or evil, for it has an awful
leverage in shaping opinion where the
papers are such that the public has