The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-10-30
Vii. Wattersou and the Interviewers.


In replying the other day, to some airy
persihage to the effect that he had
finally decided Ito quit politics" and
perhaps Ito start another party" Henry
Watterson hit squareIy on the head
nail which most public men doubtless
would like To see driven home finally and
for ali time. "The boys" said he re-
ferring To various contemporaries who
had published the announcement concern
ms him. should beware Of the uhiqui-
t0Us Reporter and the everlasting Inter
view. Nothing goes but what appears
in these columns. To be caught by the
nape of the neck and the seat Of the
breeChes and tossed heels over head into
print by a space-writer who undertakes
to tell the public what he thinks YOU
think-and that without notes. OF even
a notebOok-has become an added peril
Of modern travel"
Unfortunately, as the dean Of the news
paper profession IN America thus pun
gently intimates. there are in that profes-
sion some men-only small number
comparatively, but still altogether too
many-tO whom statements made or not
made by q celebrity have absolutely
no part in the interviews" with him
which they place before the pub,c
through the paper they represent. Trsu-
ally the papers in question not only
condone this species Of taking, but en-
courage it, and are even more to blame
than the irresponsible reporter. So long
as the interview is spicy OF startling.
the editors OF such journals care no
more about whether they are true OF
not than do their employees. The result
is that a public man or other distin-
guished person is sometimes injured
through misquotation or absolute mis-
epresentation-injur even more seri-
ously we think, than the honest and
conscientious reporter whose truthful
and accurate news story or interview is
wantonly denied by the public man it
concerns, and whose interests do not
happen to be served by II. Such denials
are as much more frequent than mis-
leading interviews or news items. in
reputable papers, as the right kind Of
newspaper writers are more numerous
OF the reporters thus contradicted is
usually so merged with that OF the pa
pers they serve. and they are so hard
ened 70 being thrown down by polit-
icai trimmers and others not above
yielding 10 untrUthfulness in the interest
Of self, that neither their regulations
nor their feelings suffer. But many a
man in the public eye, on the other
hand has been plagued all his life by a
statement wrongfully attributed to him
by a careless or taking writer.
In a large number Of cases, perhaps
the public is able to judge as to the
truthfulness or untruthfulness Of inter
views and news articles. just as the
careful and honest editor dIscriminates
between the grain and the tares that
come to him. Nevertheless, every re
porter and interviewer is under a sacred
obligation TO the public to be accurate
and impartial and to publish direct quo
tations only when he has the exact
language of the speaker. When the care
less, the sensational, and the taking ones
are made to realize the existence of
this obligation. and to act accordingly.
neither Mr.. WattersOn nor any other
man who INDUCES in modern travel
need fear being pitched into print in the
incOntinent manner so feeliagly de-
scribed by the Gentleman from Louis
vile.