New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-21
TRUTH IN WAR NEWS
A Plea for Nothing but the Official
Bulletins

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: On the Inauguration of your First
TO Last-the Truth" policy my sincere though
helated best wishes for unlimited success
However, | must crticise your news col
umns, and while this criticism applies to all
Of the newspapers in New York, and for that
.matter in the entire country, it applies first
Of all to your publication by reason Of your
self-appointed leadership First Of All-the
Truth"
All the official information on the war
daily issued by the various war Offices is con-
tanned in two or three businesslike cable
dispatches, and possibly, not more than two
interviews with responsible persons VINO
really know what is going on.
/ am even excluding the British "Eyewit-
ness reports, for a London paper C"Ihe
Evening News'O voices its opinion regarding
the same as follows:
Ma gnificent but Not War News. The
Press Bureau to-day issued further mar
rative, which will be found on Page z,
from the delightful raconteur who forwards
meteorological chronicles and light-hearted
stories from Sir Johns headquarters and
incidentally refers to the war;
The story of the day, put into connected
and readable English with a decently capa-
bic editorial is enough; nothing more is nee
essary.
Now what the newspapers really do is to
publish twenty different and conflicting &C
counts of the incidents of the day, in which
accounts preference is given not to the most
straightforward the best informed and the
most authoritative, but CD to two columns
fair average) of editorial gush and cheap
moralizing, (2) to accounts by ignorant sur
vivors or bystanders who are in no position
70 realize what is going on, but whose terror
is sufficiently obvious and whose adJectives
are sufficiently lurd to enable readers to APP
preciate the situation at it's worst, and CD to
the stories of folks who are nowhere near
the place of action, and never have been, but
have relatives in the battlefield; their an
cuished suspense is described from hour to
hour from day to day and on, without the
slightest regard for the obvious circumstance
that neither they nor their intimate sensa-
tons are matters which concern the public,
or which the. public has any business to con-
Germ itself with.
Later on follow photographs, for the most
part obviously faked-the piled-up dead,
ruined cathedrals and scenes of alleged atroc-
tiles being marked with the usual crosses
And the Sunday editors put on finishing
touches by turning on their most imaginative
artists to reproduce the most revolving as
poets Of the tragedy
The whole effect is that war is robbed of
most of its awe and all of its dignity, and
becomes merely nauseating horror. The
press of to-day delights in detailed descrp-
ton Of the most grewsome scenes of this
world drama
The Tribune has of late risen high above
all other newspapers in this city by reason
of its fearless truth in advertising" cam
paign; were you to follow up the good work
by purifying your news columns you would
soon find yourself leader in new form of
journalism.
First to Last-the Truth" is a policy diff
fcult to carry out, it is the highest aim a
newspaper ever set for itself and once ac-
complshed, The Tribune will be the fore
most newspaper in the country. This hope
sincerely. WILLIAM KREBS.
New York, April -, 1915.