Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-03-15
SAY POISON NEWS
PO|SONS PAPERS
Authors of New Book Claim
Suppression Leads to
Ruin of Journal.

CHICAGO. March IA newspaper
"can no more afford to poison it's
news than a dairyman can afford to
put pruSsic acid in his milk, Harper
Leech and John &. Carroll say in
their new bool; on the newspaper
whats the News" just published.
THE newspaper which poisons its
product poisons itself. Suppression
Of important or pertinent facts in the
interest of popularity. class. gang.
clique or self-interest Is the e0uiNa-
lent of death warrant II persisted
in /Of tl:.s the toll of dead news
papets IS sufficient testimony
All phases of the neWspa pers rela
ton 10 the myriad activities of mod
ern life are touched on In the book
which describes news AS ''accelerat ed
literature" and the newspaper nc a.
institution (which Is writing lifera-
ture as the clock ticks"
On Tribune staff.
The authors are members Of the
staff OF the Chicago Tribune. l-eech
is known 40 writer on economic
topics under the pseudonym 81
"Scrutator." while carroll also Is an
instructor In the Medill School of
Journalism at Northwestern Cnivet
Si.v
The writer's declare that neSvspa
per mon long have had triple classi
fcatinn of news. based on the themes
of money. love and religion. To I've
more specific and probably more o.
tightening. news interest Is disclosed
by the world in review as 1t tumble~
Gay or night upon the copy desk
from wires, cables. bot from the re-
porter's typewrite t's cooler from the
mails. seems to he summoned up thus
Life and death, desire FOR amuse-
ment. curiosity. ambitions and cupid
ity, wealth and poverty. religious
hone. generosity and stinginesS. hon
esty and dishonesty, heroism and
fear
Crime Proportion Lower.
While crime is called the most in
teresting of All news themes-judged
nv circulation gains and popular in
terest-the authors assert that AS
the cost OF publishing has increased
and the volume Of crime has IN
creased. the proportion Of all crime
that wins a place in the news has
waned until ii il less than one-half
of per cent in the larger dailies.'
The most sensational newspapers
are less sensational than their read
ers. Strive as they may to tickle
Demos. the mechanical and economic
limitations on newspaper space are
such that they constitute one of the
least sensational forms of letters. Per
thousand ems of type or pounds Of
paper. they run less to crime and
tragedy than most of the great
classics. ~,
The idea that the suppression OF
crime news would lessen crime ignores
the fact that newspapers are by no
means the only methods for the dis
semination Of information. They
have never superseded the gossip and
the grapevine telegraph
Little Sex News.
Likewise the authors find that com
paratively little OF available sex news
is printed. although citing the subject
aSsone of wide interest.
Sex will disappear from the news
when newspaper are written and read
by Robots. Men and women and their
problems as such always have been
the theme of accelerated literature as
of nearly all other sorts
But. just as in crime. the very
abundance of sex news in time forces
a process Of selection, until very
minute fraction Of sex news ever gets
into the newspa pers, and that is usu-
ally selected because IT carries with !
some unusual feature of appeal-ex
actlv as the sex of great literatur'
is always something vastly more than
sen"
The relation of advertising to news
papers Is commented upon. 1T ha
become conventional to say that
newspaper lives on its by.product, ad
vertising." The authors deny this
saying:
"It probably is true today that tn
great ma jority Of newspaper advertis
ers are as dependent on the news
papers as they are on the railroads
the post office or the telephone fo'
their continued existence and func
tiOning."