The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-07-12
THE ONLY KEPT" PRESS

The following from the Miami Her.
aid is well-worth the attention of
thoughtful men and women:
When you read your paper do you
believe what you read, or do you take
it with a grain of salt? Is it, as
many papers were in other years,
your law and gospel, or have you lost
faith in it? Do you believe that the
press is bought and that most of the
daily journals are "kept?"
These are important questions, for
the daily newspaper has tremendous
potentialities. 1t touches the lives of
practically all the people, and touches
them for either good or i'll. The
questions are asked in an article by
Lewis Harper in the Dearborn indie
pendent, and he expresses the opinion
that, with exception of few papers
which have won peculiar place in
the esteem of the public, the people as
a whole have lost faith in the news
papers.
This loss of faith, he believes,
grows out of a general conviction,
which has been blatantly expressed,
sometimes even in some newspapers
and in many radical journals, that the
editorial department is controlled by
the business office, which in turn is
under the domination of the big adj
vertisers. The attitude of the pub
lie, Mr.. Lewis declares, has arisen be-
cause the newspapers themselves have
not paid enough attention to the
charges which have been made, for
which there is little or no ground
1t is the contention of Mr.. Lewis
and this is the opinion of all the re-
putable newspaper men in a position
to know the facts-that the generally
accepted idea that the big department
stores dominate the press is almost
entirely without foundation. Citing
his own experience, he says.
81 have never met a newspaper
editor who ever received an order
from department store, directly OF
through the business office.
"In seven years of editorial man
agement | do not ever recall having
received an S'order" from a depart
ment store, and precious few requests
of any nature-certainly one to color
news, and that met with refusal
The refusal resulted IN an advertis.
ing boycott by the department stores
one of the very few attempted in
America. 1t ended in increased adver-
Using rates for repentant department
stores. y
"Of course, newspaper men will ad
NIT that here and there weak news
paper may allow itself to be coercec
by big advertisers, usually depart
ment stores, but they say-and / be-
lieve justly-that such an instance
would merely demonstrate the mora
weakness of the newspaper owner. not
a necessary result of the relation be
tween the two Institutions
There may have been time wher
some misguided advertisers tried IL
dictate newspaper policy. That time
has gone. The advertisers them
selves have found that In the Ions
run it does not pay. And they hav,
found that they usually do not gee
anywhere when they try such policy
As matter of fact the only kept
press IN this country is the radica
press, mostly weeklies and monthlies
which make the loudest complain
about the buying" of the daily news
papers. Phese journals of protest, al
they. like to call themselves, are usual
ly far from self-sustaining, and de
pend for the money they need upon /;
few "angeis" who are in sympath!
with the expressed objects of tn,
papers. These papers are really dom
mated by few interested persons
The daily newspapers on the othe
hand, are usually the reflection of tn,
divergent minds of a number of ed
itors and managers. who do not have
any axe to grind, but who are solel.