The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-08-25

last week about the Minnesota
Medical Association trying tt
bribe the press into stronger
fight against health insurance. b!
permitting doctors to take out ad
vertisements was national SCOOP
and still is-as far as the daily
press is concerned-with one ex
ception. We are not Dragging about
it. We are merely pointing it ou
as important evidence of the sac
state of the American press.
Our scoop was not the result OF
enterprise-but the result of &
blind spot in the press generally
The story was available to daily
newspapers-in fact it was offered
to them on a silver platter. Some
of the best newspapers in America
had it. But none of them printed it
So far it has appeared in no news
paper except the labor papers
served by Labor Press Associates
and the Minneapolis Tribune which
used the story circulated by Labor
Press Associates on its front page
The commercial press is giving the
story the silent treatment it ac-
corded earlier this year to other
press scandals.
Any fair minded newspaperman
would agree, we are sure, that the
story was a big one. 1t disclosed
how Minnesota editors had limited
to the doctors of that state that
they could not carry the ball for
the doctors against the Presidents S
health insurance proposal without
remuneration. AS a result the
Minnesota Assn voted to drop its
long standing ethical rule against
advertising. Most damaging of the
disclosures was that news of this
action had been passed around to
the papers in a confidential bulletin
from the Minnesota Editorial Assn
in June, without any backfire from
the press. In other words, it was a
statewide scandal involving both
doctors and editors.
Newspapermen here who heard
about the story agreed it was a
sensational one. Robert S. Allen,
one of the best, gave it a big ride
in~his radio program over WOR.
Some correspondents sent the story
to their papers, but so far it has
not appeared anywhere except in
labor papers and the Minneapolis
Tribune.
The result is no surprise to
working newspapermen. 1t merely
proves again that nothing is easier
than scooping the press on a
scandal involving the newspapers,
or on any other news they don't
like, such as stories friendly to
labor, or critical of big business. |
know because I've made my living
writing stories of that kind for
years.
For six years | wrote Washing
ton news for PM and during that
time | scored many beats. But most
of them were Of this kind-stories
that the other newspapers could
have had if they had been interest
ed. They were exclusive news in
PM only because they were stories
the other papers did not want to
carry.
PM was filled with news of this |
that the other papers
lid not want to carry, or did not
regard as news. Some of PMS
stories represented great enter
rise and hard digging. But many
# them were just as available to
ther papers as they were to PM.
Before PM was ruined by poor
management it had made a COM
nercial success selling news of
hat kind. One year | received a
ividend check representing my
hare of the papers profits.
Some of the best..stories in PM
yere stories Of the way other [
apers distorted the news. | re-
lember one in which Leon Hend-
rson, then price administrator, [
lade a speech comparing the rise ,
4 profits, wages, and farm income {
uring the war. His figures showed {
rofits had risen more than any of !
ne others. But with one exception i
the big newspapers and the AS t
Press all played up the i
ise in wages, or farm income, and S
ynored the rise in profits. {
Stories on profits are the hard e