The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1944-04-08
AMERICAN JOURNALISM

AMERICAN JOURNALISM
Some years ago distinguished and cultured Tor
egner on visit to this country stated that he was
frankly baffled by a people who make national
heroes out of Mickey Mouse, Charlie Mccarthy and
eat sawdust (his word for cereals every morning
for breakfast He was even more baffled by Amer-
can journalism which sought mass appeal through
comic sections and generally sought to satisfy the
lowest cultural appetite of the population IN the
presentation of the news This critic whose name
escapes us at the moment had equally harsh things
to say about our movies.
While we do not wholly agree with the sentl-
ments of this gentleman from abroad he raised some
very interesting points which warrant study by the
so-called moulders of American public opinion we
had occasion to recall the statements OF this critic
as we read our three Detroit daily newspapers last
week What interested us most, however, was a
comparison between our daily press and the weekly
Negro journals. We recall somewhat painfully that
it has become very popular pastime among some
of our downtown white friends to point out that the
Negro newspapers are essentially yellow Journals
which cater to the mob with their lurid stories of
crime, sex, ETC.
We had occasion to remember too that our bus-
tering County Prosecutor charged that this yellow
Negro journalism was detriment to the community
and he was able to get the Governors Fact Finding
Committee which allegedly studied the riot causes
to concur in his chid-like conclusions. While the
average Negro publisher will frankly admit that his
paper is far cry from what he would like it to be,
hardly any of them can understand why the Negro
press is constantly singled out the prime offender
against public decency. Many Negro publishers Won
der why the critics of the Negro press ignore or
overlook the prevailing practices of the daily press
and the general tenor of American journalism. II
S In Detroit last week our three daily newspapers
demonstrated in TALL boldtype headlines how scrupu-
lousy they seek to preserve the high moral char
acter of our community. Although we are reliably
informed that the fate of our civilization is hanging
in the balances of bloody war abroad the impress
sion left by reading the local daes last week sug-
gested that the hotel bedroom Of Charlie Chaplin was
the scene of battle of far greater Importance to the
American way of life. One also might have been
led to wonder whether the capture of the killer OF the
angelic Joyce Raulston, whose nocturnal adventures
challenged the ability of the most talented reporters
would not be far more rewarding than the capture
of the Dictator of Berchesgarten The trial Of Lone
gran in New York, gathered from the daily press
will bare new discoveries regarding the impulses
of the male human W h C h may provide eminent
Freudians with hitherto unknown truths.
We were able to read in the daily press last
week also ueIdlleu udlySlS VI luc IdCidl CiidI-
acteristics' of some crimes. Like Julius Caesar,
it seems that Miss Raulston met her death at the
hands of knife welder and for the first time in
history have grounds for suspecting that Brutus
was man of color This scientific treatment of the
Staying of Miss Raulston was given the readers in
order to provide amateur detectives with basis
for their criminal research. To say that this anay
sis of the racial characteristics" of the crime
made public for less noble reasons might lead one
to question the good faith of the daily publishers who
profess such passion for inter-racia goodwill
The treatment of the news Of the world by the
daily press last week was true to the tradition of
American journalism. After all, the daily papers
are business enterprises and they seek to please their
customers and the fact that the vast majority of
the American public seem to hunger for life in the
raw, leads the dailies to serve it up rare indeed.
Unfortunately the Negro newspapers have been in
fluenced by the tradition of American journalism
and on some occasions they try to match their skill
with their white contemporaries. Fortunately how
ever the Negro press has not found it necessary to
go to such lengths of 'yellowness in order to win