The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-11-24
MONDAY, NOVEMBER "A, 1919.
THE NEWSPAPER REPORTER

THE NEWSPAPER REPORTER
The incompleteness of much news
paper reporting is occasionally strik-
ingly illustrated The Rutland Her.
aid last week furnished an example.
The Vermont Horticultural society
held a winter fruit show in Rutland
and about quarter of the exhibits
were from Bennington county.
In fact the show of apples from
Dorset and Bennington were two of
the chief features of the show, yet
the Herald in its writeup of the ex.
Ihibition said almost nothing about
these features. reader of the Her.
laid would have inferred that the show
was principally Rutland county az
sfairand that the Rutland and Addison
County exhibitors deserved most of
tho credit,
When the judges came to make
their decisions, however Bennington
county put it all over the other dis.
ltricts. Ernest II. West of Dorset won
IS llrsts out of % classes in which
The exhibited and the Everett Orch.
ards of Bennington came almost up
to Mr. Vests record.
1t is proper for a newspaper report.
cr to be possessed of local pride and
not to neglect the neighbors of his
own community but when he is sent
to report state affair he should pre-
sent word picture of the thing as it
is and not let provincial or communi-
ty pride tend to mislead the readers.
Newspaper reports of local matters
Eeyon if correct seldom satisfy those
most interested. Each little group
thinks it isn't given sufficient atten.
| ton and prominence and that some
others get too much. The competent
newspaper reporter should have no
friends during working hours. 1t is
his job to tell the facts, whether
pleasing or otherwise and let the pub
lie Judge for itself And the report
Iers do this more often than the pub
Ilic realize When you hear an indi
vidual or a faction complaining that
he or it cannot get fair reports in the
newspapers you can rest assured in
most cases that they are not looking
for fair reports but for prejudicial
articles chiefly unfair to their OPP
ponentc.
The newspaper reporter often goes
astray because he is expected to COW
err every conceivable sort of topic and
in such haste that he hasn't the time
to give more than a glance at any one
subject He hurries into place and
gets brief interview with whoever
he finds most available and then
rushes away to something else.
What happened to the Rutland Her
old reporter at the apple show is just
what happens daily to thousands of
reporters the world over. When he
came to write up the exhibition he
naturally fell in with a Rutland coun |
ty man whose local bias led him to
talk about the things he was most
familiar with, not in any attempt to
deceive but just because he had a To-
cal rather than a general view.
Old time newspaper reporters have |
learned to their sorrow and dismay |
that even citizens of wide acquaint- |
ance and extended knowledge cannot
always be relied on TO give an impart- !
ial view, and the reporter gets a one
sided or provincial slant in his infor-
nation. One aspect of every affair is
always easy to get but many times 1t
takes hard work to get both sides of
the story.
In the long run newspapers are
probably the most truthful sources of
in the world. Any single /
article may he colored by the source
from which it comes but the next day
or the day after another phase of the
situation is revealed and in the
course of time the reader gets an ac'
curate view if he is himself I'M
prejudiced.
MI ,o,.,,.,,o,. oF CoIoradn hoe |