The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-13
REPORTERS AND SPACE SYSTEM
New York Herald Calls Attention to a
 Growing Evil.

New York Herald Calls Attention to { Growing Evil.
 | The New York Herald says editorial ly: According to Q specia ldespatch from Alexandria published in The Heralt Prince AziZ Hassan, cousin of the Khe dive, had some experiences when wis. | ittng this country that testify to the imaginative virtuosity of American re. porters. Whether these experiences are creditable to the American press l Is a question that our readers may an. swer for themselves.
 It appears that immediately upon the arrival here of Prince Asiz he was besieged by reporters anxious to ob. tain his views upon the American peo- pie, American institutions and Ameri- can customs. That he had not yet had time to form an opinion on any one of these weighty subjects was plainly matter of no importance. As the cousin of the Khedive, 1t was appar- ently argued, his views even on e subject of which he might be com pletely ignorant must be interesting.
 Finally he refused to receive any more reporters. This step procured him little time for sight seeing, but it did not cut off the supply of inter- NACWO WhACh LO dppSdE III newspapers by columns. Prince Aziz repudiates these adticlee in the most emphatic manner. Ht ! says there is no truth in the wild statements attributed to him in them He adds that the only newspaper which did not annoy him in any way and did not fake" an interview was The Herald.
 It Is regrettable that Prince Azizs compliment to the Herald should be at the same time a little reproach for other American newspapers. The ori- gin of the reckless Taking of which he complains so justly Is in the space system now far too popular with the press-a system which explains, thougg 1t cannot excuse, the slips from the straight path made by the reporter de- pendent for his earnings upon the number of columns he can succeed in filling. Finding that "sensational'' matter is given preference, the unfor- tunate reporter, particularly if blessed with a large family. is naturally in- clined to devote his energies to the compilation of sensational copy" and if his city editor Is not vigilant in the performance of his duties--one of which duties is to insist upon figor- ous accuracy--the reporter Is likely to yield to the temptation to "fake"-in other words, to invent sensational news" Careless city editors, in fact, too often shirk their responsibilities. Instead of having their Instructions carried out by a staff of conscientious energetic salaried reporters they try to avoid being beaten" with regard to some item of news--and also to avoid the necessity of thinking-by encouraging a countless multitude of unattached reporters writing Ion space"
 In the days of Frederick Hudsons an editor was capable of thinking out news possibilities. Nowadays he relies upon a crowd of space" reporters to hunt down the news and thus make up for his deficiencies.
 The condition complained of by Prince Aziz will not be changed until the American press as a whole adopts the rule enforced by The Herald that every interview must be approved be- fore publication by the person inter- viewed, with its corollary that repu- diation of an interview entails the in- stant dismissal of the reporter who supplied it, and until the staff of sal aried reporters is increased and the stan of space grabbers" diminished.