The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1908-02-28

yellow journalism" is defined as
that type Of journalism which prints
page after page of sensational matter
every day, whether the stories be true
or false, for the sake of creating a
sensation upon the popular mind and
thus get the paper widely read. The
yellow" journal will as readily invent
stun with which to fill its columns as
1t will seek the truth. In fact, II is
more often the untrue than the true
that 1t does print.
The harm done by this practice is
the fact that the readers Of this highly
sensational matter base their judy
lnent upon life on altogether wrong
foundations day after day. 1t Is little
wonder as result that they get alto
gether warped viewpoints and that
they do altogether crazy things.
Fortunately for the country towns,
the yellow journal" peril is confined
mostly to the cities. And be 1t said
to the credit Of the newspapers Of the
smaller towns and cities that the in
tegrity of the country press has never
yet been tainted. Newspapers In the
small cities, where everybody knows
everybody, are compelled by circum-
stances, even If they desired to do
otherwise, to adhere strictly to the
truth A newspaper in small town
that did not adhere to the truth could
not survive. On the other hand the
metropolitan papers which are I'M
scrupulous can print their sensational
fiction day after day without ever be-
ing discovered. And even the metro.
politan papers which are anxious to
print only the truth, are put to great
pains and expense to verify the stories
which they dish up to the public on
such short notice. A few weeks ago,
for instance, Thaw was acquitted. A
Norfolk man who was in New York
City at the time bought noon paper.
In great headlines it declared that the
that Thaw would be tried a third time.
Not until o'clock that night did this
man learn the real truth. In sharp
contrast to that incident was the fact
that people in Norfolk and throughout
northern Nebraska, through The News,
knew at o'clock the truth of the mat
ter-that Thaw was acquitted.
The country newspapers cling scrup-
ulously to the truth. They will go to
any limit to get the real truth. They
are bound by their small communities,
even though disinclined, to print only
what is believed, in good faith, to be
true.
And that is why the country news
paper today Yields the real influence
in great affairs. The people believe
in the country journal where, on the
other hand, the yellow papers of the
city have set up disbelief that han
dicaps all the metropolitan press.
But the American magazine article
makes one point which is not well
taken. 1t states that people have come
to doubt the daily press and to believe
only in the monthly. This, of course,
looks well from the monthly magazine
viewpoint. But the time has not come,
nor will it, when the monthly maya
zine can take the place of the daily
newspaper in this strenuous country.
The people of America today get
| their knowledge of the worlds affairs
through the daily newspapers. They
form their opinions upon the news
printed in the dailies. And they get
mostly the truth in the daily papers.
The proportion of yellow" papers,
papers which are as ready to print
fiction as truth, is, after all, very, very
small. There are only few of them
in the United States. And Mr.. Hearst
is the publisher of practically all OF
them.
They are doing harm. There is no
question but that they are immoral.
They print page after page of unread.
able scandal. They wallow in the mire
of unclean criminal stuff. Their pages
are not fit to be taken into the homes
and read by the little girls as we'll as
the parents. The greatest harm they
do is in the cities among the newly ar.
rived foreigners just learning to read
and among the poor people who can't
afford to buy the higher class and
higher priced papers. 1t is among
these people that the yellow" papers
arouse criminal and animal instincts
1t is by pandering to the baser in
stincts of these people that the "yel.
low" press gets its circulation. But
it is by no means an uplifting factor
in civilization.
And after one has turned over the
yellow daily newspaper, one naturally
comes to the yellow magazine. Many
of the popular magazines of the day