The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1905-11-17
NEWSPAPERS MISTAKES
The Man Who Complains is Usually at
Fault


on his heel when a reporter appears,
and instructs his employees never TO
open their mouths to a newspaper man
on pain of dismissal.
Newspapers get the news by en-
ploying one or more of the God given
five senses. Their representatives must
either touch, taste, smell, see, or hear
a thing before they can write about Is.
No decent newspaper with a reputation
to sustain can afford to print dreams
as news, or can afford to misrepresent
facts. A newspaper that habitually
distorts, or is careless with the faces,
cannot become strong in the public
estimation.
If a foul drain, or a fiat wheel, or 4
cold morning, or an apple, or a fire, is
to be written about, the reporter is
competent to exercise his faculties and
thereby. If there has been a change in
some office of a corporation, or if there
is a wreck on a railroad, in most casas
a reporter has to write his story upon
the basis of facts given him by others.
The newspapers live to print the
news, and live only because they do
print the news. The newspapers will
get the news, somehow, someway. A
decent newspaper will always seek te
obtain the facts from the source high
est in authority. If refused there, it
will listen to some one lower in the
scale. If there is a ban of secrecy on
the whole outfit, it will print, for what
they are worth, statements secure |
from outside sources.
If officials are possessed of aecurate
information and refuse to give it up to
the newspapers, the newspapers must
get the information where they best
can, and if they have correspondents
or friends outside the official head
quarters who can and will obtain and
give up the facts, the newspapers will
exert every effort to get the facts com
pletely and correctly.
Persons who have never worked on
a decent self respecting newspaper, or
who have never looked into the meth
DDS of such a newspaper, have no idea
how strong an effort is made always to
obtain the exact truth about every
news happening, and verify before
printing. Items are chased down by this
man and that, and at the hour of pub
LEGATION it is often necessary to with
hold some important news because
there is no time to make sure of some
detail.
Some people have the absurd idea
that the newspapers print anything
that is handed in or told to reporters,
without investigation; and the more
absurd idea that the newspapers create
sensations out of nothing, and inten-
tionally distort news to make a "livc
story Some publications no doubt
do those things, but no decent self re-
specting newspaper does them. If
business men, and especially officials
of corporations, would learn to make
paper such consideration as it's merits
deserve, they would benefit themselves.
Every decent newspaper prefers, as
a matter of business, to get all its
facts correct as well as complete. In
juries are often done by stating facts
but that is a mere incident not to be
avoided or insured against. To state
things that are not true, even in minor
particulars, hurts a newspaper very
much more than it hurts any individual
or corporation. Confidence is the very
foundation of a newspapers good will,
and it would be suicide to abuse it.
Men who comprehend the duty a
newspaper owes to the public, and the
Importance that it's work be lone ex-
peditiously, thoroughly, and correctly,
will not refuse to give legitimate news
to the public through the papers. If
they have something to conceal, they
may rest assured that, if it concerns
the public, the newspapers will find it
out and print it.
1t seems that it would be better, in
the long run, for persons in a position
to give the newspapers the exact truth
about a certain happening, to give it,
and not leave the newspaper to find
out the facts as best it can.
Before you comment on a news
papers mistakes, examine yourself AMI
see if you have always promptly given
the facts about matters of public inter
est, when asked for them by a news
paper man. If a mistake is ever made
about a matter that concerns you, it is
80 chances out of 100 hat you tried to
throw the newspaper down on that bit
~ n that xxo, %r.aJ -