The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1916-07-18
NEEDS SOMETHING DONE.

The American reading public is
conscientiously opposed to any effort
to muzzle the press Of the country
and needless to say. the press has no
desire to be muzzled-in fact will not
submit to such action. But in justic'l
to that great majority Of decent jOv
nails which print news and news orr
something should be done to that 81
Ter portion Of the press which per-
in printing pure lies and fabrics 4
We, as all other newspaper M
admire the spirit which PROM
news service to attempt 10 fU\ M
patrons with the news quick m
competing service We admifg'H
porter who shows his loyalty to his
paper by exerting every ounce OF
strength in him in an effort to scoop"
rival It's all in the game, as we
newspaper fellows call the business.
But when a news gathering agency,
IN its mad efforts to get ahead Of a
rival, stoops to the gentle art of lying
we claim it is going too far. The
public should be protected against
such frauds, and the public must do
its own protecting. The only way to
lid the world Of such newspapers and
such services is for the reading pub
Tic to shun every newspaper which
publishes absolutely unreliable re-
ports.
We remember recently, when the
Mexican crisis was before the public
and the entire world was waiting
Carranza's reply to President Wilson's
ultimatum. Reports from official and
unofficial sources in Mexico City were
to The effect that the first chiefs reply
would be flat reputation of the
American demands and finally a day
came when these same sources Of in.
formation declared the note had been
dispatched to America.
A certain news service waited until
ii thought sufficient time had elapsed
for the note to reach Amefida and
then made public Il lot Of rot purport-
ing TO be the Mexican reply to the
American note, The real note did not
arrive until several days later and il
turned out to be entirely different.
Such fab.ications originate in fertile
brains, perhaps. but those brains are
OF the calf variety and the public is
injured.
We know a man who is a regular
subscriber to newspaper which ear.
ries this yellow" service. II so hap.
pened that we came in contact with
this friend every morning before we.
ourselves had an opportunity to look
over the papers, even our own. When
| asked tho familiar question What's
going on?" he would invariably be
ready to tell Of some startling event
in connection with the war or some
thing else, which upon later investiga-
ton proved to be entirely without
foundation in fact The trouble was
this poor soul read only one newspal
per and he will so down into his grave
no doubt thinking lots of things which
never happened
We do not presume to be a GeguIa
tor of the Great American press. bui
We believe the voice of the public as
wen as that OF the decent press should
be raised loud and often against this
. portion of the press which casts re
| Election over the entire profession.
one other thing we wish to toucl
upon before completing this little ser
mon, That is the taking of article;
on the war aud other big subjects by
authors of note, We have been relia
bly, informed that on several occasion'
certain articles have appeared in news
papers and magazines. dated from
some of the battle fronts in Europ,
and signed by some well known au
thors who were at the very time rest
ing snugly in the mountains OF Cali
fornia. The public should not tax,
too much stock IN names" For GU
part, We place more confidence in tn,
Z daily diSnnfrhas fr,,,, tho fropt bV IN,