The Northern Guardian. — 1896-12-17 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

HOW .NEW-S' IS MADE."  IN our last edition on Tuesday we gave an account if a mail being found in the ground of The Willows, and also an interview with a tramway watchman who spoke to seeing four men in the same vicinity under suspicious circumstances. At the police court, yester. day, a discussion took place among the magistrates upon our report, and Supt. Tiller admitted that the report was founded upon fact, but that we did not say that the man in The Willows ground was of unsound niiud. We did not allege burglary, but simply stated that he was found there by the gardener and that the man rail away. We gave the pclice credit for promptly taking the man into custody, and he is now in the workhouse. Our contemporary, whilst making a display of its accuracy, had a short paragraph the same evening in connection with this individual, headed Sweetheart or  Thief," which inferred that the man was either there as a sweetheart of one of the servants or that he was there for thieving purposes. We did not allege either for one moment. Both surmises, it has been proved, were hopelessly incorrect, and now to boast of their accuracy is, to say the least isU it, somewhat comical. Onr contemporary publishes a conversation among the magiscrates upon the subject yesterday, under the heading of "How 'News' is Made," and seeing they have opened the question we will reply to them. It is admitted that the man referred to above was found where he had no right to be, and Supt. Tiller admits that be was locked up, so that our report was substantially correct. But there have been times when very sensational reports have appeared in a local print under half-a-dozen glaring headlines, which have certainly been highly coloured. Our readers will probably remember that very terrible affair of a girl being bound, gagged, and robbed, which was reported to have taken place in West Hartlepool ; but we have the word of the Superintendent of Police that the story was much exaggerated, and yet it was never denied by those who set it afloat. Then, quite recently, there was reported in the same paper a somewhat sensational account of a hostile demonstration against French sailors at Hartlepool. We investigated the matter, and found it to be incorrect. Sensational telegrams were sent by some person to various papers throughout the country, these were copied into the French papers, and what was the result? The l'renr/a paper. actually opo/ssiig,i/ for spreading the toport, and said it was unfounded. Then, early in the year, our contemporary I issued a special edition stating that .1 "doable murder " had be-n attempted in the borough of West Hartlepool, that " one man's throat had hoes cut," and that another man had "been thrown into the dock." It +ma quite harrowing to read of how the knife had "just missed the jugular vein," and how the throat of the victim had been "slashed" And all this because a foreign sailor got drunk and slightly injures a companion. Other instances could be mentioned of a similar nature to those we have mentioned, but we think we , have fully explained "How 'News is Made.": Another point we might mention, however, is that the conversation among the magistrates was purely of a private character. The only reporter in the court yesterday morning Wali the representative of the Goardion, and it was left to others to give the conversation to our contemporary, and this is "How 'News' is Made."