The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-11-19
Prize Capitalist Papers Lies
Proves Need Of Labor Journals
ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PRlNT'-HoW THE NJ Y
TIMES HANDLES THE NEWS.

BY LELAND oLDs, Federated Press
THE failure OF even the best of cap
\ italist newspapers to report fairly
the great events in the labor strug-
gle comes to mind as we read the
wholesale eulogies of the New York
Times, published by that Journal on
its 18TH birthdays.
While the Communications flow from
a host of bankers, captains of indus
try and commerce, politicians, law
yers, educators. .clergymen and Jour
nalists, not a single representative Of
organized labor is in evidence.
The antidotes TO this praise from
persons who profit by the existing
order is found in a supplement to
The New Republic dated Aug. 4, 1926,
in which Walter Lippmann and
Charles Merz indict the New York
Times for its handling of news con-
corning the Russian revolution.
The authors are concerned only to
see how accurately the Times pre-
scented facts which It would have been
Of advantage to Americans to know at
the time. They say: 1.-THE reliability
Of the news is tested in this study by
a few definite and decisive happenings
about which there is no dispute. Tha
only question asked is whether the
reader Of the news was given a pic
ture of the various phases OF the rev.
olution which survived the test of
events, or whether he was misled into
believing that the outcome would be
different from the actual outcome"
They conclude their analysis Of all
the news items about Russia pub.
lished in the Times during SO months
with the judgment:
The news Tin the Times) as a
whole is dominated by the hopes OF
the men who composed the news or
ganization. In the large the news
about Russia is case Of seeing not
what was, but what the men wished
to see. They wanted to win the war;
they wanted to ward off Bolshevism.
For subjective reasons they accepted
and believed most Of what they were
told by the state department, the So
called Russian embassy in Washing
ton, the Russian information bureau
of New York, the Russian committee
in Paris, and the agents and adher-
ents Of the old regime all over Europe.
From the point of view Of profess
sional journalism" the analysts con-
tinue, "the reporting Of the Russian
revolution (by the Times) is nothing
short of disaster. On the essential
questions the net effect is almost al
ways misleading, and misleading news
is worse than none at all. What
ever the excuse, the fact remains
that great people in supreme crisis
could not secure the minimum of
necessary information on supremacy
important event"
All this is said by journalists who
are in no sense radical, about a paper
concerning which postmester-general
New says: mo paper represents
American journalism more creditably
and none more completely holds the
of those who depend upon
it for accuracy of the news of the
world for the unbiased presentation
of which the paper exists"
The authors show the Times tide
Of misrepresentation about Russia
steadily as the desire to
overthrow the revolutionary order
grows. The red peril" is exaggerated
to support the demand for interveu-
ton. Each successive counter-revo-
Iutionary leader, Kornilov Kolchak,
Deniken, Yudenieh, etc., is represent
ed as about to release the real Russia
from bondage. AS climax come1 the