The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-11-14
The Cherry Tree
Where We Hatchet Out
The Truth
CAN BE SAID AGAIN
COLUMNISTS CAUGHT IN
SPELL
WOULD BE KING MAKERS
. DISHED OUT DIRT

DISHED OUT DIRT
Now that it's all over it can be
said again-as it probably has been
said at least every four years-that
politics is about the dirtiest game in
America.
And not since the old days when
Conde Nast's cartoons threw constern-
alton into the vortex of a presidential
campaign have we seen more despic-
able dirt than in the battle just closed.
This time the newspapers con-
tributed to the general smudge far
more than ever before.
The newspapers ought to look back
with more than little shame upon
what they have done.
1t isn't the editorial columns that
have reeked most with the filth of
gutter politics.
1t is the columnists' tripe that has
smelled up the printed page.
1t is during the last four years that
the columnists have become so i'm
portant part of American journalism.
And at the top of the power they did
a nose dive into the biggest pit of
dirt and calumny they could find.
X X X
1t is fair to wonder whether some
of the most blatant and arrogant of
the columnists can ever again have
quite the respect that they enjoyed
before politics got the better Of them.
Radio commentators are, by and
large, under restraint that does not
apply to newspaper columnists. They
have some regard for decency or get
off the air. 1t seems that in this re-
spect the ethics of radio are higher
than the ethics Of newspapers. Of
course, some newspapers have no
visible ethics and never had any. But
where there have been ethics the COL
umnists have bowled them over as if
they didn't exist and had never been
heard of.
What happened to so many of the
columnists? Perhaps therein lies the
material for good mystery thriller.
Maybe they got caught in a spell
of their own weaving-thrilled by
their own adjectives.
Or perhaps, they sought to out-do
each other in villainy on the theory
that the loudest and most vindictive
would become most popular
X X X
Perhaps, too, the columnists had
hunch that the one that could deliver
the most striking diatribe each day
might be chosen to enter the White
House with the hoped-for victory,
there to strut upon a paper throne,
with a mud hook in lieu of sword
strapped to his belt.
There are a lot of things that make
life pleasant for satellites of victory
in Washington.
The trouble with that idea is that
there have been more dirty columnists
than could be accommodated, even
under the most generous of circum-
stances.
The whole experience points up one
thing: Newspapers will do well to
clean their pages. They can't entirely
wipe away the stains left from these
past weeks of poisonous filth, but they
can sweep up the place for the future.
Sweep it up and mop it up-and then
disinfect it.
The would-be king makers have done
the kind of job that makes no more
of it highly desirable.
Happily the labor press has resorted
to no such exhibition of slanderous
writing.
In pleasant contrast to the daily
newspaper field, the labor press has
gone through this bitter campaign
with dignity and cleanliness that
should make their readers proud and
their owners very satisfied.
Reasoned argument is one thing and
hatred is another. Reasoned argu-
ment is not only permissible, but
highly desirable. 1t should be indis-
pensible. 1t is proper to discuss
issues and then explain divergent
views. We have freedom and we
should exercise it fully.
But freedom has decended to license.
License is excused, but should not be,
merely because it's politics. Candidates
seldom sue. 1t is supposed to be bad
form.
The labor press has had its
reasoned argument, it's pungent
and urgent messages. But it has
preferred to remain clean and
free from the filth that has de-
spoiled so many daily pages.
AS for the columnists who have
"dished the dirt" it will be a long time
before their alibis will overtake their
lapses.-CMW.