The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-01-05
Fake Newspaperinq.

! Washington Qowa) Democrat: 1t is
la common remark that you cannot
believe more than half you read in
the newspapers. 1t may be true and
1 it may not. but we fear there is too
much foundation for the sarcastic re-
mark, to say the very best you can
for the newspapers.
+ And it is a pity it is true But
there are very many newspapers
whose sole ambition is to do as
| Greeley suggested, raise hell and
sell papers, and the truth is
often sacrificed for the sake of a sen.
sational item.
That item from Keokuk last week
concerning a workman who disappear
ed month or SO ago; nobody knew
what became of him, till last week a
! day. the workmen We're taking down
some false work or some wooden
forms and then they found a human
hand sticking out of the cement and
that explained what had become OF
the workman.
That was enough to brand the lie,
since, if he had fallen into the ce-
ment as it was being placed, how
could his hand have shown?
But sensat ional and pathetic tales
were written about how the poor
man had fallen to the greed OF cor
porations and how the rich cared
nothing for the poor laboring man
and all that sort of poppycock It is
a wonder Theodore Roosevelt did not
get hold OF it and incorporate in his
platform for 1916 a plank denouncing
the Keoknk dam people and demand
ing that whenever they made plans
hereafter to put man into the ce-
ment, tha- they pay his family GER
tain amount of insurance. Speakers
might have painted horrible stories Of
how he had come to this country to
! make home for his suffering wife
and seventeen children who were left
. behind in the darkest area OF dark
est Russia and how he was saving his
money 20 bring them to this country
and how he had the money hidden in
!
was just about ready to start back to
bring his loved ones to this land Of
the free and home Of the brave And
just then his foot slipped and he went
over inc the cement and persisted.
The only thing wrong with the
story is that it never happened and
We shed all our tears for nothing.
And that is what gives people a
license to sneer at the newspapers.
There are political writer's, you
know them. who make up rot of the
same Kidney. to build up their own
/ party at the destruction OF the oppo
sition party or to boost one faction
I 81 q party TO the detriment of the
ether, regardless OF whether there is
any truth in an lem or not. Editor
ials are written on false premises.
day in and day out. and the writer's
know they are lying and editorials
are written and cartoons are made to
Z order because the boss so demands
them, regardless Of whe. her the
writer believes what he says or
/ Whether the cartoonist believes what
he is drawing in his pictures and the
result is false premises and false i'm
I pressiona
The newspapers need lot of re-
forming along hat line.
/ An instance is that of John t. Nc.
Cutcheon this fall He had no more
heart in his Roosevelt cartoons than
a rabbit. He did not believe what he
vas drawing and the cartoons showed
for themselves. They were flat ana
inslpid. whereas Mccu cheon ought
always to be crisp and bright and up
and coming. But he was working
Under orders. Look at his cartoons
now and see what snappy pictures he
makes.
2. = on The same newspaper.