Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1911-06-13
NEWSPAPER BALANCE. "


In his Phi Beta Kappa Grafton forming a
part of the commencement week exercises at
Columbia University the senior United States
senator from Ohio, Theodore f. Burton, had
for his theme prevalent misapprehensions relat-
ing to our political life and he found in it an
opportunity to call attention to what he regards
as a lack of balance" in the public prints; and
by way of illustration he told of young con
gresham from his state who had been allotted
half an hour for his maiden speech" on the
of the house, the subject under discussion
was the initiative referendum and recall and
the speaker so interested his auditors that his
time was extended to three hours and before he
had finished the galleries were crowded with at
tentive listeners And yet F" Senator Burton
commented. not one New York newspaper gave
a line to the debate one Washington newspaper
dismissed the matter with the remark that
new Ohio member had taken part in the debate
while another publication at the national capital
devoted twenty-five lines to the proceedings, al
though in its same issue it printed a column of
gossip from foreign courts and fourteen columns
OF baseball news But the Ohio senator was
not disposed to Jump on" the newspapers very
hard for this apparent discrimination. He said
| contend that such an incident as this
can be taken as lack of balance on the
part of the newspaper. But don t blame
the newspapers. TO be sure they miss
their opportunity to educate the people,
but must remember that the mind
Of the people is not on political subjects
and that the newspapers are business
enterprises which give the people what
they want. If the people hadn t wanted
fourteen columns of baseball that day
they probably would not have got it.
Senator Burton cannot deny that the news
papers the greatest educators of the people
and perfectly fair ana ysis Of this incident
would no doubt convince him that they did not
miss much of an opportunity for popular edu
cation in this instance THE mind of the peo-
ple'' is on political subjects-very largely so !;
but on this particular subject of the initiative,
referendum and recall popular interest has not
crystalzed as yet; the three proposals are
something of fad-a thing for theorists and
'progressives" to talk about, but not a matter
compelling keen public attention; and the
day in question dozen more other political
subjects demanded extensive treatment as
against the "maden speech of an Ohio con
gresham that happened to interest for the
moment the house lawmakers and the chance
loungers in the capitol Every incident of eve
day and every night possesses interest
somewhere. But if the news editor of news
paper of countrywide circulation to essay
to treat every matter that came to his attention
strictly on its relative merits a preventative
of the balance he would find himself CON
fronted with the necessity Of putting out a one
hundred page publication every day-and the
people wouldn't buy it, and they wouldn t read
it if it presented to them free of cost
atter-day newspaper making is much more a
matter of elimination, Of suppression, than it is
of acquisition.
A western preacher some years ago assigned
himself the job of getting out daily newspaper
as Christ would have made il" in the opinion
Of this pulpiter. The publication flat
failure; nobody liked it nobody wanted it. And
any daily newspaper made up according to the
view of any one of its critics would no doubt
meet the same fate.
AS Senator Burton frankly admits, the news
paper publisher puts out something that in his
opinion will sell. If down-eaSt green grocer
were to put only garlic, okra, maccaroni and
parsley on his counters, he would "go broke >
within week. Up in 'Lttle Italy" dealer
might get rich off of such traffic in year
It's all matter of knowing what your CUSTOM
ers will buy.