Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1914-08-14
HOW HEARST MAKES
WAR News


and Roscoe Mitchell have served
the country well in giving t the
public an Insight into Hearst
methods 1t manufacturing news"
. oTier. Harpers Weekly mas
published an article by Russell,
telling of the experience Of Nit
chell as a correspondent Of the
mediators who are trying to ar
range peace in Mexico. The article
could not have been published had
not Mitchell been honest and high
minded enough to protest first, and
then resign, b. -ause the dispatches
he sent from Niagara Falls were
garbled in the office Of the New
York American.
On the morning Of May 30 the
Hearst papers Published what pur-
ported to be e dispatch from Mia
CARA Falls containing the full text
of a so-called Carranza message to
the mediators. Mitchell was the
only Hearst reporter at the confer
ence. He had not heard of any such
message from C%Hrranza and had
sent no such dispatch. The tele-
graph operator had not sent any
thing of or about a message from
C%arranza. Mitchell. Who had been
taken into the confidence of the
American delegates because of his
known honorable record as a re-
porter. sent a telegram to the New
York American resigning his posi-
tion as a representative of the
Hearst papers.
Mitchell is a man Of family. He
took a position with the Hearst
papers because he needed a job.
He quit the job because his honor
as a man and a reporter was involv-
ed and Russell in his story of the
taking of news by the Hearst pap
ers. and of Mitchells resignation,
says:
"The resignation vas received in
Niagara with jov. Newspaper men
who were famous for work in sew
eral continents formed themselves
into an impromptu committee and
rushed in three automobiles to
Mitchell's hotel to tell him while
he was packing up, what a fine
stand they thought he had taken
for standards to which MIR. Hearst
has not yet risen.
The American delegates ever
held for Mitchell an improm ou re-
ception, during which Justice Fred
erick w. Lehman made o short
speech congratulatiug the report
err"
Previous to May 3O-the day of
the resignation Mitchell had had
much trouble with the Hearst out.
TT because it persistently garble6
his dispatches, and he had wired
several protests to Managing Edi-
tor Bradford Merrill, Of the New
York American. The evening of
May 20 Mitchell had sent q dis
patch giving the actual news at
Niagara. Next morning the Ameri-
car contained not a word Of Nit
chell's dispatch, but did contain,
says Russell, what purported to be
q dispatch from Niagara Falls full
Of "insinuations that President Will
0 was backing down in a humil-
iating manner to each demand made
upon him" What appeared in the
paper o~stensibly from Mitchell. was
written in the Hearst office in New
York. The other correspondents at
Niagara knew that Mitchell had not
sent what was printed.
Mitchell protested to the Hearst
office against such conduct and re-
ceiyed what seemed 10 be assur-
ances that it would not be repeat
ed. The gaIbing of his messages
was resumed: then additi )ns were
made to them after they reached
the New York American; and final
ly came the paper with What the
paper claimed to be the "full text
Of the C~arranza message" in the
midst of a genuine dispatch from
Mitchell, aud he demanded by wire
that he be withdrawn from Mia