TaÌˆgliche Omaha tribuÌˆne. [volume] (Omaha, Nebr.) 1912-1926, 1915-02-13

49,"
ssess, The saeredness OF the free.
aum Of the press is much diuncd in.
- our eaf8-by the press.
But We hear little 81 the respons.
~-sty 81 the press-from the press.
Ws hear little condemnation Of the
fdamatory and destructive mis-.
representation practiced By the
press, little criticism OF false reports,
haunted ignorance, news diseolored
Nv interest, canards, it-is-alleged, and
t5s ike-irom the press.
Every newspaper has IN 10
grind; al least one, sometimes many.
and the pull re must do the turning
~ the griHc tone.
As a matter Of fact what Is the
cressf
Newspaper Anarchy
Whoever has the price Of type
and presses may issue a sheet Of al
legged Information and sell 1t to the
public, and il may contain anything
which his self-intcrest dictates. III he
takes the precaution not TO actually
libel any Individual, he escapes all
responsibility and the only control
which is exercised over his opera
tons Is that exercised by his read
crs, who, ii they like not his news
or the opinions he expresses, may
discontinue the purchase OF his
paper.
Otherwise he may print what he
will, he may m%isrepresent facts will
fully or carelessly, he may distort
aud exaggerate, he may suppress, he
may publish canards and inventions,
he may pour out an unendlng
stream OF falsehood and deception,
he may discolor the truth, play upon
prejudice and poison IN any way he
sees fit the stream Of public opinion.
All this he may do in the name Of
freedom Of the press and none may
stop him.
Ii may be we'll inquired by what
virtue does such sacredness inhere
in the ownership OF type and print
ing presses! What sets apart the
newspaper owner from the rest Of
mankind and permits him unbridled
license?
The Tyranny of Liberty"
Such grotesque peryersions of
liberty must finally undermine the
whole structure oil liberty, for when
liberty is so much abused, when
liberty ceases to mean not the safe
guarding OF proper rights, but the
permission, the license TO assail the
helpless and pervert the public mind,
ar oyer-drastic regulation will be de-
manded which will in turn be sub
versive OF liberty. Thus one extreme
breeds another and the policy OF
absolute and unrestricted freedom TO
whoever puts type to paper will
bring the extreme Of regulation when
the reaction SETS in.
Regulation OF the press, however,
IS an obnoxious procedure when
those who have the power to reg
ulate are perfectly fIce to exercise
whatever regulation they see ht.
Here again liberty becomes license,
and the press suffers and with it
those who are entitled to know the
truth about events Of concern 70
themselves as members Of the social
body, for suppression is equally as
dangerous as -exaggeratiou, both
being forms of responsibility.
Must the Censor Come?
Il is a dangerous condition when
one man must decide what another
maj is to read or not to read and TO
any such censorship newspapers OBJ
iect with the utmost violence. Yet
their editors decide every day what
their readers are TO read or not to
read and consider themselves as
acting within their proper powers.
The censor is merely the editor OF
the editors, vested with powers OF
exactly the same sort as those pos
sessed by the editor. The censor is
bound to come in some form or
other If the editors do not respect
the freedom which has been given
them.
President Roosevelt made a most
determined effort to muZzlc the
press but that muzzling would have
been as dangerous as the abuse OF
its present freedom by the press,
since it would have been of an
arbitrary and an equally ir%respons-
ibie kind.
The Power of the News Distributor
The public does not realize the
enormous power of the press TO
misguide public opinion when it
determines TO do so. The average
reader imagines that public opinion,
as far as it is formed by newspapers,
i formed by the editorial columns
OF the papers.
This is an entirely inadequate
view. The editorials Of a newspaper,
in fact, have very little force in
moulding public opinion, for the
reason that readers in general only
read editorials which are in accord
with their own existing views. When
editorials controvert the convictions
of the reader, the reader cease to
read them and buys a paper which
reflects in its editorials his own
opinions
Ii IS in the news columns that the
newspaper has its greatest power
over public opinion. II it publishes
as a fact, for example, the news"
that German soldiers are guilty OF
outrages, public opinion takes an
anti German tinge far more quickly
than from any number OF anti-
German editorials. The fact that no
such outrages have in realty oc-