The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1910-01-06
THE HOME
CIRCLE COLUMN
PERSONAL JOURNALISM.

AS this paper mas salWyS sClalmcu Tx
right to criticise other professions and
calling in life, it seems only justice tc
call attention to a few of the many
mistakes in our own line of business. As
we endeavor to make this paper a "home
paper" perhaps the Home Circle Column
is fitting place to point out some OF
the evils of the press, as we view them.
There was a time when the newspapers
echoed the noblest sentiments, when our
speak through its columns. Those days
are past. Cool, courteous argument is
seldom found in the newspapers of today
neither is there any dignity in their criti-
cism. Now we find the religious news and
the quotations from the stock exchanges side
by side. They pander to the bad instinct
of the money seeker. They accuse with
out pity and defend without reason. They
elevate and pull down regardless of merit.
But why is it so? Why this lamentable
transaction in the press of our country?
The cause of this change is sadder than the
fact itself The people demand just
such press. A noble, dignified press
can only be possible when noble public
demands it. An unhealthy desire to sat.
isfy longing for gross pleasures has
made our newspapers what they are.
Journalists admit the evil effects of sem
sational reports of criminal acts, and admit
that no person has the right to sow the
seeds of disease in the physical body of his
fellow men; yet they are guilty of SOW
ing moral and mental disease, which is
a far greater crime. Many read the
responsibility and suggestions of crime
easily taken root in such minds. The
sickening details of diabolical crimes are
sources of evil Bloodcurdling headlines
draw the attention of those who are hun
cry for adventure, and the young are es-
pecially damaged by what they led to.
1t is true there is a class of readers, who
repudiate all that is impure, as the child
before its mind is contaminated with the
base and vulgar elements in life, loves
that which is beautiful and will lay its
tiny fingers on the petals of flower and
show its admiration long before it can
lisp a word.
The demand for immoral papers is a
sad comment on the tendencies of the
times and the temptation to ensure a
large circulation by the pandering to the
tastes of the visions, has led many of
them to prostitute their purity in order
to place them on a financial basis. We
publish ought that would corrupt the
reader, yet such papers are generally the
ones who suffer for want of patronage.
DR.. Adams, of the Advance, says, "The
newspaper men come nearer hold
ing the helm of opinion than any other
class of men. They have the whole
world for an audience. We have them
with cur breakfast The breakfast goes
to the body and the newspaper to the
moral system. IF our coffee were
poisoned every morning the race would
soon die. If you put poison into the
newspaper the race will soon be bad"
Many newspapers giva three columns
to a sensational divorce and three lines
to the notice of a golden wedding"
These pests of journalists never hesi-
IL, II a
SO picture to the world the sacred an
guish of stricken hearts. They czeo
to view the long hidden skeleton fcnA
in so many closets. They have tl>
audacity to pry into the affairs Of fhe
family. We read that the Athenians
were famous for their greed for gossip,
yet even they had their limit. The dead
were as sacred to them as their gods.
In our day all personal matters are dis
sected. The qualities of human pity
seems to have faded cut of journalism.
The reporters pry into til corners of
the sick room and inthe most indelicate
manner expose with revolving minuteneSs
the different phases OF disease. Even
the last words of the dying are blazoned
in the headlines of the newspapers. They
reveal in all sorts of sensationl reports.
The more sensational the reports the more
compensations they receive from the pub
fishers. Slurs on women are looked upon
as choice morals, to be chewed by the
public, thus pandering to vulgar tastes
of those who have mothers, wives and
sisters to whom they are indebted for
every spare of respectability they pos
sess. Here nearly every man and
woman gets his or her dose of current
slang. The demand for newspapers is
so great, a host of cheap writers enter
the field Of journalism and the worst
features in the case is that ii is the bad
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