The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-03-03
NEWSPAPER STORIES.

In a recent trial for damages
against railroad for an accident it
transpired that news of the accident
had been withheld from the press,
and the question "Why" was asked
of the railroad man who was testify
ing. He replied that his experience
with the newspaper men was that
they were all liars, and he would
have nothing to do with them. Now,
the chances are that this railroad
official had acquired his crouch
against newspaper men because they
told the truth rather than a lie, ac-
cording to the Canton Sentinel. In
millions of cases the truth is just
what those most intimately concern
ed do not want told. But what we
wanted to say was that the telling
of story all depended on the point
of view. You can sit in court and
listen to a dozen witnesses describ-
ing some particular happening, and
no two will agree in every detail,
and the stories of some will be
Numerically opposite the stories of
others. These witnesses, generally,
are reputable citizens. They are un-
der oath to tell the truth, and they
do tell the truth-that is the way
they saw it. When a newspaper
man tells the story of an event in
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred
he tells it as some one told him, or
as he has been able to pick up the
story from a half a dozen different
people. Some one reads that story,
who looked at the event from an
other point of view, and he straight
way says that newspaper men are
liars. Again, things are misunder-
stood. Years ago the writer said of
lady who had just died, that she
had been an invalid for years"
Her husband was an irritable sort
of man, and grief did not improve
him. He came to our office and
said I'm a tellin' ye sir ye air a
domed liar. Me wife was not an in
valid. She had been sick for a
long time, but her mind was clear
to the last" That man joined his
wife on the other side of Jordan six
years later and carried with him the
firm belief that we were a "domed
liar" Another time, in reporting
a drowning accident, we said that
the body was in the water about
three hours. A relative of the un-
fortunate man drove fourteen miles
" ISll US IHdJ we Hdu got II wrong
last week, and that his cousin was
in the water only two hours and
forty-three minutes. You read the
news in any half way reputable
newspaper, and the chances are that
the stories are as nearly correct as
they can be written. Almost invari-
ably the things in a newspaper that
offend people are the things so un-
deniably true that they confound
the people about whom they are
told. 1t used to be the practice of
the railroads to deny absolutely all
news about an accident. At the
present time we believe the policy
of the Pennsylvania railroad is to
give to the press a detailed and cir
cumstantial account, full of statis-
tics and as dry as dust. Out of this
they build the real story. A Lehigh
Valley official one time told US: Il
absolutely forbid you to mention
this accident" We invited him to
go where the air was more temper
ed to the shorn lamb, and told
the story as we pleased Those
days are all over. If you have a
story that is news, you go and tell
the newspaper man all about it, and
see if it don't get into the paper
straight