The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-04-28

S> NNNo "ANAA Ms SSNtAhc 81
fairly adequate representation on the
first page.
With all this. however, goes a
fundamental misunderstanding of the
functions of The Associated Press.
The individual correspondent or re-
porter for a given newspaper or a
small group Of newspapers having a
common bia may be permitted to in
dulge in ~partisanship or in propa-
ganda.
This is absolutely not to be per-
mitted in The Associated Press. No
bias OF any sort can be allowed. Our
function is to supply our members
with news, not views; with news as
1t happens-nefFas we may want it to
happen. Intensely as its manage
1nent may ~sympathize with any
movement, no propaganda in it's be-
half can be tolerated. Very jealousy
d does the membership guard
against their agency going outside its
allotted duties and argus-eyed is the
censorship of every handler of our
copy"
1t is not, naturally, to be claimed
that no mistakes are made. The are
made and will be made. But in the
very nature of the business, with the
heart SO worn upon the sleeve, detec-
ton very swiftly follows, and the
mistakes are few and far between.
Ihe desire to enlist The Associated
Press in propaganda or advocacy is
usually to be found at the bottom of
CRITICISMS OF its service. Added to
this often is INSTRUMENTATION as to the
real facts and sometimes, though hap
PLY rarely, actual malice.
The service from Russia, for exam
pie, has been harshly criticized by
some VINO thought that the province
OF n Associated Press was to UNI
dertake a crusade against the Russian
government because of it's anti-Sem-
itic attitude. Our theory of our obli-
cations is that we should repor. the
facts as they occur. without fear or
favor, but that it is no part of our
duty to draw indictments save as The
facts alone are damning.
The case of the Koreans charged
with a plot to assassinate Governor
General Terauchi has recently been
much discussed.
These Koreans We're almost all con-
verified Christians and the American
missionaries in Korea were naturally
intensely interested in the matter.
1t was freely alleged that The AS
scciated Press, unduly influenced by
the japanese government, had sup
pressed the fact that these Koreans
had made confessions, duplicating
American missionaries as accessories
to the plot, and had subsequently re-
tracted these confessions, asserting
that they had been eXtorted by afro
c1ous torture inflicted by the Japa-
nese police, the intimation being also
that the missionaries were in peril by
reason of the repudiated confessions.
Based on this some of the mission
airy authorities here became much
perturbed, and indeed one of the great
New York papers printed news and
editorial articles criticizing The AS
scciated Press for the suppression of
the matter.
AS a matter of fact an inspection of
he news service received by The AS
sociated Press and distributed to it's
members showed that it carried the
full facts; the confessions, the impli-
cations of the missionaries, the allie
cations of torture, the fact that the
allegation of torture was believed by
the missionaries n also the fact
that the japanese denied the torture
stories attached no credence
whatever to the prisoners statements
duplicating the missionaries.
ON lea rpjrn tina wool ,;+,,t;>, A.,
New York newspaper in question
promptly printed an ample amende
honorable, but l do not doubt that
many still ignorant of the ]retraction
feel that The Associated Press was
guilty Of some dereliction.
Another cause OF frequent lnisap-
~prehension is in the general tendency
of newspaper readers to attribute
anything seen in print to The Assoc
ciated Press, n it is constantly
necessary to explain that some vio-
lently partisan or inaccurate article
was the work of a special and, not
a part of our service.
Away back in the middle of the last
century an alliance, offensive and de-
f%ensive, existed between the old New
1p1h ASSocldleu freSS, q neWS-Sell1nB
organization owned by seven New
York papers, n the Western Union
Telegraph company under the terms
OF which the New York Associated
Press dealt solely with the Western
Union and the Western Union in turn
gave discriminating rates and ad-
Vantages to the New York Associated
Press.
Although this arrangement Cir the
light of today a very improper one)
Was abolished more than 80 years ago,
many people think that it still exists
and occasionally some n arises
fiercely to denounce this unholy al
lance.
The simple truth is that The Assoc
ciated Press has during all these 80
years and more paid exactly what
other news associations IA and that
the rates charged by the telegraph
companies for the facilities furnished
us are greatly in excess of those
charged individual newspapers and
Sfi11 MONA fh,~ +L,-. A.l