The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1914-11-12
Down With the Press Agent.

Louisville Courier-Journal.
A Spanish grandee once observed that
all royal and noble Spaniards agreed that
the public was an ass and should BE- ridden.
The only point upon which disagreement
was possible was who should occupy the
saddle.
All special interests agree that the Amer
lean press is an ass, but there is no dis
agreement about who shall ride it. The
various interests are in hearty agreement
that everyone who has need of free adver-
Using, or 'publicity'' as it is called, shall
make free and unlimited use of the news
columns. 1t is due to the folly of the press
that the burden of free advertising has
been long and patiently borne. It is time,
surely, to rebel. The interest of the news
paper as business enterprise; the con-
science of the press as gatherer and dis
tributor o. news: the reasonable demand
of the reader that advertising shall bear
label, are influences which should combine
to put an end to the riding of the ass by
every body and anybody who wants "pub-
licity."
Even the riders are beginning, many of
them, to grasp the fact that they have
made inordinate demands upon good ma
ture. The American Newspaper Publish
ers Association, in Bulletin 1904, reprints
a speech of E. A. Moree, representing the
State Charities Association of New York,
at the charities conference in Philadelphia,
in which it is stated that attempts to fitch
valuable space from newspapers should be
abandoned even by organizations fighting
tuberculosis.
Mr.. Moree is quoted as follows:
lr fko ofo 10 nj
ute the paper we use. We do not ask the
owners of the building we occupy to con-
tribute our quarters. But we do ask the
newspapers to do the equivalent by giving
US space, which is like money to them.
Buy space. Advertise your work as
business houses do, and you will get the
ease little of the resentment that the
newspapers are beginning to feel for you,
If you do anything worth picayune the
newspapers will print it as news and with
out your solicitation"
Advertising that is frankly advertising
commands respect. Advertising which
parades as news not only lessons the re-
spect of the public for newspapers as We
hices of information, but also breeds con-
tempt in the mind of the reader who might
IF properly approached, become interested
n the enterprise, the commodity, the arti.
Gle, the individual, advertised.
i Nowadays very considerable proper.
ton of the readers of the press quickly
recognize, and as quickly resent, pub.
lcity articles" designed to impose upor
them by passing off advertising as news.
The paid advertisement challenges at.
tention and disarms criticism. It is an oper
and above board claim for consideration
not an effort to trade upon a lack of intel
ligence, more often presumed than actual
among readers.
Publicity bureaus are often so expensive
. that paid advertising would be less costly
The press could, and should, greatly re-
duce the volume of free publicity. Ths
result would be more informing and reliable
news columns. That reform would be worth
more than the advertising which woule
supplant the free publicity masqueradine
> as news.