Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1913-08-31
Newspaper Game AS 1t Is Played In The State OF Oklahoma

posed TO be able TO tell all about crop
planting, the changes of the moon,
when II is going to rain, II there viii
be a panic; 10 quote Shakespeare
and omar and Coutusc,us ana tho
| Bible by the hour and yard; and, IN
short, To be able to tell all about
everything that ever happened or Is
ever expected 10 happen, occur or
take place. either by chance or pre-
| destination or natural causes, whether
| probable, improbable, possible or I'M
possible. The time used 20 be when
/ folks I'm general believed In gods OF
all kinds, and spirits Of many differ
ent kinds. In fact, there was "a spirit
| in almost everything. InthouEhtedly
and unknowInglN a little Of That old
/ belief creeps In every time per
/ sons nowadays say Spirits of tur-
| pentine or anything else, and poets
and fanciful writer's still dig up the
spirit" Of the night Anyone VINO
| has supreme contempt for money Is
| lmbucd with the ambition to become
O. glorious and everlasting god, can't
| find better place than In the edi-
| torship Of some country weekly.
Getting back to making the news
]
he is also the reporter who is sup
posed t. watch the railways and the
doings OF the city commission and the
board Of education and the park
board and the undertakers and new
| construction work together with what
effect the huctatlon I'm the price OF
cuttin i9 having on the prospective
acreage next season in he comes ana
says that Sam Smith got arrested
! for
But il Doesn't Appear
Peach Of "a story" to use his own
words "Sam Smith got pinched by
| the cops this p. m. for violating ordi-
nance 80. hipety-hop nd"
Now. the fact Of It is, Sam Smith
and another mans wife really did
put on a show right out in public,
both Of them pretty well under the
influence Of nerve deadener But IT
is a further fact that sam, In his sober
moments. runs some kind Of a bust
ness and does considerable advortis-
ing, so, Of course, the policy of the
paper IN such cases is such that II
can't see any good result from pub
/ fishing a bit of scandal that everybody
in town knows about Inside of two
hours after II takes place.
Well I'm comes the reporter who has
the run down at the court house and
clasps his hands I'm ecstasy because
he found a suit filed by George Wolf
leg, an Indian against Bin Jaquem-
eler, his guardian, involving rich oil
and gas lands. The property is may
be worth only IA couple Of hundred
thousand. Bill shows up around the
Office at about the same time the
reporter does, and n half-hour later
the reporter says ''damfees a gona
try md get my more news T they
amt n goua use "
Everybody Has Wondered
Lots and lots of times you hear Of
things on the streets news that's per-
fectly legitimate in all respects. and
news that isn't legitimate in any re-
spect, and you ask your informer-
Wonder why there wasn't anything
about that in the newspapers" But
the only reason you ask that ques-
ton is because you never did run a
newspaper. There's million and one
things to understand around a news
shop, and the one big thing for n
reporter TO get into his head at once
is that he must not ask questions
when he Is told his story won't be
used.
But the news probe comes in with
a story about some kind of n big deal
or some kind Of a big event which
Is just about to break. But they
told him not to use 1t yet that they
would tell him when, and he would
get first whack at it. The fact of It
Is, more than likely the same story
was told TO one of the boys on the
opposition newspaper. So the probe
and his fellow probes and the editor
and the whole clan hold a cOnfen-
enCe.
Holding Back n Story
"I have never known II to fail, ="
says the probe. that when we hold
a story up for a few days. the other
paper always beats us to It, they al
ways tell the other paper to cut loose
first"
And his opponent on the other
paper has just finished telling his
fellow workers the same thing-that
the "other" paper will get to it first
Really. each of them is sincere, and
nine times out Of ten. the "Othcr"
paper grabs II first and gloms It's
freshness and crispness. It's just a
question of violating 4 confidence,
and for n newspaperman to violate
"A confidence is worse than II he had
swallowed some of these tangled
mercurial bichloride pellets. It's the
Pelky punch properly placed.
As far as real news goes, the sin
OF omission becomes a virtue I'm the
making Of a newspaper, 1t is often
more important to keep story from
appearing than 1t is to run an equally
big story. But there is no hard and
fast rule to tell what news is. There
is n way to tell what a potato or an
apple is. but you can't pick up a
piece Of news and monkey with 1t in