Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-03-12
THE REPORTER.

New York Evening Post Several
challenges OF the accuracy of reports
Of speeches have recently been re-
sounding. Perhaps the after dinner
speaker Is the one who rails most fire.
made him wittier, more eloquent,
more eptgrammatic than he really was.
We read that some one has unburden-
ed himself with delightful freedom and
point and are much struck by the
frank and original utterance; but the
next day comes the denial that any
thing Of the kind had been said. The
indignant speaker protests that his al
legged brilliant remarks were, in real
ity. throughout as dull as ditch water.
Then we hear more about the ''reck-
less and lying reporter"
Now, We hold no brief for the re-
porters, but we are sure fiat few OF
them would turn in consciously false
account of what they have seen or
herd. A certain kind of misrepresent-
ing is, of course, done to order, and 1t
is the superiors of the young men. not
they. who are responsible for convert
ing a report of a political meeting, for
example, into a travesty of the pro-
ceedings; or for giving to the public
the reporters impressions of a lectur-
ef's hair and clothes instead of a thans-
cript of what was said But this is
something apart from the ordinary
complaints of deliberate misrepresen-
tation. The latter is frequently charg-
led, but could, we believe, very seldom
be proved. There is, of course the old
rule of reporting political debate in
such a way as DR.. Johnson said, as to
make sure that the whig dogs got the
worst of it," but even this, nowadays,
rarely goes the length of putting
words into the mouths of orators which
they never spoke. Reporters at AL
bany or Washington will say, to be
sure. that the arguments and oratori-
cal flights Of our side simply left the
other fellows nowhere. but they will
have at least the grace to quote their
discounted opponents honestly, SO far
as they quote them at all.
The exact truth Is that the reporter
more often heightens the repute Of an
after dinner speaker, or a political de.
batter or a great man submitting to an
Interview, than lowers 1t. Few speak
ers know how badly they speak how
horribly stenographic reproduction Of
their remarks would read. The un
grammatical expressions, the broken
backed sentences, the forgotten pre-
misses, the omitted conclusions, the
awkwardness-al these 1T Is the prov
ince Of the reporter to reduce to some
thing like order and lucidity. II he
knows his business he will not under
take to get down verbatim the words
of debater or a discourser on things
! in general The proper course is to
catch their main drift, give faithfully
| the general idea or sentiment, but
find himself the proper language in
which to clothe them. By such means
he will often extract from the discern
| ing subject of his operation the excla
nation: What an excellent report
that was you made Of my speech!" II
probably was not evcellent-in the
eense of being accurate; but it divin
ed the orators thought, struggling fol
expression; made him more forcible
and pointed than he really was and sc
naturally won his approval
| II history was only to be written as
the facts really would justify it. we be
lieve that the newspaper reporter
would rank we'll UP! with the private
secretary as the true begetter of the
sayings of great men.