The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-09-04

1.-THE journalist" says Sir Charles
watson. in a new book entitled Truth:
An Essay in Moral Reconstruction"
U'utnam), more than any other class
of men, has helped to lower and vitiate
the sense of truth" How far is this
statement accurate, and how best,
whether it Is accurate or not, can the
problem it raises be solved? 1T would
be encouraging, in some ways to be
able to believe that men and women
outside Of newspaper offices are as
guiltless, relatively, as Sir Charles
implies. 1t would be pleasant to think
that lawyers, politicians, clergymen,
auctoneers. manufacturers, philoso-
piers, doctors. historians and soldiers
are all natural seekers after truth, who
would form themselves into a long pro-
cession at the heels of George Wash
ington If it were not FOR the mislead-
ing wll-o' the visits of the journalists.
But the New Statesman. of London,
which suggests this line of thought,
denies that journalists have left the
general sense of truth" in a worse
condition than they found it. 1t asks
Sir Charles: Does he really believe
that the average European has a less
lively sense of truth at the present day
than he had, say, in the thirteenth or
the sixteenth century. when there was
neither a Daily Mail nor a ably News,
neither a Times nor q Manchester
Guardian to entce him into error?
Does he believe even that, If all the
newspapers were suppressed tomorrow,
truth would fiutter naked and UNI
ashamed into the Vacuum" 1t states,
fatty: Our experiences during the
war incline us to doubt it." 1t con
tinues:
During the war the newspapers were
practically suppressed rs regards a con-
siderable part of their work. The re-
%l,a al, ,,tv ttN,, ~ NH
of myths beyond the dreams Of the
most sensational news editor who ever
sweated his soul out in Fleet street.
1t was the general public, not the SEN
sational newspapers, that invented the
trainloads of Russian soldiers on their
way through England and the countless
Belgian children with their hands cut
off. The journalists may possibly clsim
a limb or so of the Belgian child as
their own, but the Russians sprang
full armed from the many heads of the
many-headcd long before ever they
were mentioned in a newspaper This is
not to absolve journalism from its many
sins. We suggest however, that there
is some reason for pausing before
putting our signature to the lelief that
journalism has turned a world of
honest men into world of liars. A
history of human error would take us
back some thousands of years before
the birth of the first journalist. Cain
was the first liar, and he had never
read newspaper in his life"
Can one doubt, the New Statesman
gees on 20 ask, that the press as II
whole pandHrs to thc public love of
error? During a war or II stnkc this
tendency Is especially marked. When
a strike occurs it is often all but i'm
possible to find what the men are str:k-
ing for. There is TOO little of the spirit
of innJIiry w told in
offices. How many newspapers have
ever taken the trouble to find out what
bolshevism is, or what Sim Feinn is?
What is the bolshevist theory OF gov
eminent? To what extent are the
crimes committed by bolsheviki the
sort of crimes committed by Russian
parties in general? These are simple
questions to which the New Statesman
looks in vain for simple answers in
newspapers. What the propertiod
class want" it says, 'fs not an un-
Outstanding of bolshevism but de-
nunciation of it. The atrocities COM
mitted by the bolsheviks they dwell
on as a shining sun among facts; the
atrocities committed by the enemies of
the bolshevks they take no more notice
of than n dark star" The argument
concludes:
1.-THE press by its lack of inquisitive-
ness into simple facts, allows the public
to base its opinions with regard to too
many matters on sensational irrele-
vancies. The distorted story of an
atrocity on the other side is usually
given far more space than the principle
involved in the quarrel 1t was so.
however, before newspapers. Every
newspaper, for instance, is in our opin-
ion bound in honor not to suppress
facts of great public interest merely
because they conflict with editorial
prejudices. The suppression of the
bolshevik wireless message about
great London newspapers was a fla
grant instance of the degradation of
journalism. We are aware that every
newspaper has to mako a selection of
its news, and that this can hardly
be done without bias a licensed vic
tus Hers paper will naturally give prom
inence to a speech on the whisky
question; a temperance paper will pre-
fer to give its space % speech by
Mr.. Left Jones. Selection of this kind
is not dishonest 1t is not 4 deliberate
Justification of contemporary history.
The newspaper that falstles the days
history, be its purpose in doing so as
noble as can be. is committing ;n act
at once dishonorable and dangerous
The political opinions of mon and
women are formed largely by what they
read in the newspapers-more. perhaps.
by what they read in the news columns
even than by the leading articles. The
only thing that will insure sanity and
intelligence in public opinion is a fresh
stream of facts constantly poure into
the minds of the people through the
channels of the press. If the stream
OF facts is not kept pure. We shall have
a people of muddled minds and foolish
purposes. The newspaper should I've as