The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1920-03-04
THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
The Republicans New York Special
Writer Deals With Many Subjects
New York. March q. 1920.

Mr.. Bryan's proposal that the Ccv-
eminent print publication containing
but truthful and impartisl news has
caused much talk.
Everybody would be in favor of the
proposal if it were not for one thing.
How are we going to get Government
press that will give only impartial and
truthful news? That's the rub.
The only attempt along this line was
made during the war. and the very first
thing the Government press bureau
known as the Committee on Public In
formation-did was to print an abso-
lutely false account of naval engage
ment with submarines which never
happened, and the next thing it did was
to publish an illustrated account of the
splendid achievements of the board
in charge of building aeroplanes for
military use-the chief fault of the
story being that there was not a word
of truth in it and that the pictures we're
fake Photographic
The next noteworthy achievement of
this Government press bureau was to
pay fellow named Edgar Sissons
thousands of dollars for forged letters
purporting to be communications be-
tween the Russian Soviet Chiefs and
German paymasters and to publish these
broadcast with Government endorse
ment of their authenticity-when the
truth was, as everybody now knows
that these clumsy forgeries had been
peddled in Paris before Sissons got hold
of them and rejected as palpably false
by Partisan editors.
Now, assuming that Mr.. Creel was
personally honest-as | believe he was
and that the Government was bun
coed into publishing all these false and
ridiculous yarns, who is to assure us
that the press bureau which Mr.. BRYAN
advocates will do any better in the way
of providing accurate and Trustworthy
news?
The fact is, there are several publi-
cations in this country which give the
important news of the world with re-
markable accuracy and fairness, but
very few persons read them. They
have one reader where the other sort
have thousand-yes ten thousand.
Now. doesn't that go quite a way to-
ward proving that Bsrnum was right?
The big daily papers are very keen
about circulation. They always strive
to print the kind of paper that will
please the most people. And as long
as those that print the most sensational
and the most untrue articles enjoy the
largest circulation, so long is it true
that you folks are great deal to blame
yourselves tor the untrustworthy char
acter of the news you read.
That s one reason, and one big rea-
son, why the press stuff you read is so
frequently inaccurate and misleading,
when it is not downright talsehood.
Then, there is another reason why so
much news is doctored, garbled and Of
ten deliberately falsifed.
Nearly all daily newspapers depend
and must depend-upon news gathering
agencies for the most important domes-
tic and foreign news. And if it means
profit to powerful political or financial
interests to have the news reported
falsely, you can be certain that the
news will be reported falsely.
This will be done by poisoning the
news at the source. so that the news
papers which print it will frequently
do SO in the full belief that this news
is accurate.
Sometimes this need be done but
once-as when the false reports that
Yudenitch was on the point of captur-
ing Petrograd was flashed around the
world by a ring of spectators in order
to unload huge quantities of the old
Russian paper roubles in suddenly
rising market.
Sometimes the thing is kept up for
months, as was done in the case of Kol-
chak and Denikin's repeated victor
les, series of false reports running
through months, in order to keep up the
prestige and borrowing powers of the
ambassador" and officials of the fic- |
titlous "All-Russian Government of |
which Kolchak posed as Supreme |
Ruler"
There are merely two recent ex-
amples of the ''press jobs" that have
been put up on the American people in
such abundance for the past five years,
but they serve to show you what mean
by poisoning news at the source. Be-
cause | am certain that the average
American newspaper printed these
loctored.. news" reports day after day
Without the slightest suspicion that
hey we're practically all falsehoods,
for political and specu-
alive financial purposes.
Now. it may be that a Government
)ress bureau if DrOnerlv conducfad no |