Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-07-07
PRESS CRITICISM.

newspaper press often
1 comes in for drastic criticism
at the hands Of those who know
very little about the business Of
publishing a newspaper. 1t does
not become the newspapers to re-
sent that criticism very violently,
for the fact is that the newspapers
themselves are chief offenders in
that line. They often criticise
other lines of business that they
know very little about. They live
in a glass house in this matter of
ignorant criticism. So when some
one who never ran a newspaper
writes and tells us how we should
run it, and how much better news
paper we would print if we only
had the sense to follow their ad-
vice, we take it kindly and without
much anger, if we do not follow
the path marked out by our gener-
Gus adviser.
However, newspaper men them
selves often preach to their brother
newspaper men about the ethics of
the profession. The Hartford Cou-
rant the other day gave space to
some criticisms that seem to us to
have point and truth. The occa-
sion was a dinner in honor Of an
old newspaper man, retiring from
the game. The Hartford news
paper says:
"Col. Norris G. Osborn, editor of
the New Haven Journal Courier,
insisted on being present to do
honor to Myers, in spite of a pain
full injury to his foot which has
kept him in the hands of doctors
for months. Col. Osborn, the
POSTMASTER of the evening, a bril-
liant after-dinner speaker, launched
into his favorite topic after point
ing out what Myers had worked 20
years to maintain.
myers, the speaker pointed out,
was not interested in headlines.
His job was to see that Connecticut
got the news, truthfully, impartially
and on time. 1t was the news
which the people should read. Col.
Osborn maintained. And STILL the
POSTMASTER continued, we are all
doing all we can by ingenious meth
DDS, to destroy our property. We
are teaching the public to rely on
headlines, and to take the news
from the headlines rather than from
the body of the article itself. I
maintain that we don't feed them
the kind of food that is nourishing.
Yesterday ! picked up a New Ha-
ven afternoon paper and counted 20
stories that had been jumped over
from the first page to the inside
of the paper. This is an irritation
which, sooner or later, we will have
to eliminate. 1t is not pleasant to
confess that the paper of today is
the child of Arthur Brisbane, imita-
tons of that brilliant but misguided
writer. We are seriously leopard
izing our W influence in the CON-
munity. We are all sinners in that
respect. There should be a begin
ming of a return to the old-fash-
toned way Of presenting the news,
like the days of the Sun under
Dana. Brisbane has not improved
the profession in this country. He
has brought it down to the level of
the moving picture house. He has
done a great disservice to the pro-
fess;on. We must correct this if
we are to hold our place in the
community.
The newspaper profession is be-
coming too commercialized. We
have lived to see the medical pro-
fession commercialized and the
theological profession has almost
reached that point. The fourth es-
tate must be saved from this, and
the inevitable results of cor-I
ruptions in its various forms. The
American press today is facing a
great danger-and the only saliva
is the path Of honor and glory.
We of the fourth estate are less
compensated than others consider
ing the obligations and responsible
ties we. carry under tremendous
weight and pressure. We must
stop the commercialization Of our
1r~c>eS Il