II THE NEWSPAPER CONNECTION BETWEEN GOVERNMENT, PRESS, A democratic government is the machine by which the people manage national and international affairs. To do this successfully, they must be well informed and intelligent. On the newspaper falls the task of keeping the public informed. Through its eyes the individual views the world. Influenced by a journalistic medium, he receives ideas and forms opinions of great modern problems. The impressions thus acquired are directly manifested in the government. Press, government, people interact on each other. Both government and press are ultimately dependent on the people. The government must use the press to reach its citizens. The press must use the government to secure the political news demanded by its constituency. If the majority of people receive the bulk of their knowledge of world events from a daily journal, if that knowledge influences their vote and their vote influences the government, then the press is indispensable to both people and government. It becomes the monitor of public opinion by which the machinery of the nation is vitally affected. The newspaper was at first a single sheet given over to comment and gossip, reaching only the neighborhood group. As such it did not have the important position it occupies to-day. During and immediately following the Civil War an individual made and dominated his own paper. James Gordon Bennett founded the New York Herald, and as editor controlled its business and news policy. Horace Greeley did the same for the Tribune. Edwin T. Godkin, as editor-owner, in like manner controlled the New York Evening Post. The period of editor-owner ended about 1900 with the death of Dana and Godkin. Since then the tendency has been away from the newspaper which reflects a particular individual towards that which represents a group; away from one man ownership to consolidation. The vastly increased cost of maintaining the papers has been in part responsible for this movement and has resulted in a reduction in the number of dailies. Forced by business considerations, con MODERN NEWSPAPER 23 solidations have taken place with the result that many cities have been left with but one morning paper. The city daily has become a mammoth sheet printed in multiple editions that must be turned out in the shortest possible time. The plant is so costly that the modern newspaper demands a large capital. The editor is no longer the owner, for he has not and cannot command the money necessary to start or buy a paper. The paper is ordinarily a business corporation controlled by one or more financiers who want their investment to pay the best profits possible. They proceed to run the enterprise in accordance with general business ethics. The editors are salaried men. They are often selected because their ideas accord, in the main, with those of their employers. They may put their consciences and ideals into their work, they may help to mold the paper's course, but, consciously or unconsciously, they conform in general to the characteristic policies of their paper. The tone of the editorial is reflected in the news columns. The average reporter is guided by the action of his superiors. He helps to build the paper's personality. In carrying out this purpose he in turn may color the news or neglect some of its aspects. Actuated by the usual human desire for promotion, he hesitates to oppose his paper's known policies, the interests controlling it, and the generally accepted beliefs of its readers. The paper's policy is usually in accord with the beliefs of its subscribers which are strengthened by the material contained in its columns. Many of the faults of the press are directly due to the people and vice versa. The two react on each other. It is hard to determine where the responsibility of the one ends and the other begins. This interplay of press on people, people on press, owner on editor, editor on reporter, accounts for many of the shortcomings of the paper. To be successful and continue in business it must effect sales and secure advertising. It cannot do this unless it meets the demands of its customers. If they dislike news and opinions controverting accepted theories, the paper cannot be entirely blamed for suppressing such material. If they enjoy sensation, gossip, comic, and picture supplements, it is not altogether the paper's fault that it panders to their desires. It must meet competition. If it does not give the people what they want, some rival paper will. Need of Reform and Possible Suggestions as to the Course Such a Reform May Take. Conducted like the ordinary business enterprise, the paper has a far greater mission. Its influence parallels that of the school, the church, the government; yet unlike these it is controlled by private enterprise. Its responsibility and power are so great that its faults become correspondingly serious. Suppression and distortion of news, attempts to shape and control public opinion are hazardous experiments in a democracy. We cannot have a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people" if the voice of the nation does not or cannot give the people the truth. While the people are themselves in a measure responsible for the paper's remissness, this fact does not justify any paper for failure to report the news in an impartial manner. Yet it is doubtful if a reform of the press without a reform of its readers will be successful. The basis of such a reform is tolerance. The paper must divest itself of biased opinions and preconceived ideas. It must be ready to tell the truth, however disagreeable. The people must be willing to follow the same course; the ordinary man must do more than protest his love of free speech. When he favors such an ideal not only for himself but for his opponent, we shall have tolerance. With tolerance will come a demand for the truth. This will become the ideal of the press, then the organ of an enlightened people. It has been suggested that such a condition may be accompanied by certain reforms. Journalism will become a profession requiring the high degree of education and training demanded of other professions. The student reporter will be taught to recognize evidence, to discount bias, to sift the true from the false. The news will perhaps be passed upon by a "journalistic judiciary pledged to tell the truth with the same scrupulousness that a judge is pledged to administer the law and hold the scales of justice even." Laws will be instituted to punish newspapers violating the truth and provide for immediate retraction of false statements. A retracted statement will have to be given the same prominence as the original falsehood. Intelligence bureaus, competent to collect and furnish data, may be established. These will place at the public's disposal reliable information concerning government departments, social, political, and business organizations, and problems about which it is now difficult to ascertain the truth. The newspaper will find such bureaus a great practical aid to reliable and complete news reports.1 Fallibility of Newspapers. It will doubtless take some time to effect such reforms. In the interim the reader must accept the paper as he finds it. It is the necessary medium through which he views the world. It therefore behooves him to read his paper with a critical eye, to accept questionable statements with hesita1 Lippmann, Walter, "Public Opinion," pp. 379-397. THE NEWSPAPER AND THE ADVERTISER 25 tion, and to protest any flagrant distortion. He can learn to discount both the conscious and unconscious efforts of his paper to make him think and act along certain lines. To do this he must bear in mind its possible partisan character, make allowance for known prejudices, learn to recognize the type of news articles, and to subject the news to certain tests. The fallibility of the newspaper soon becomes evident to the discerning reader. It may suppress or distort news to favor certain important financial interests, to support its own policies, to influence its readers. It may find it difficult, expensive, or economically unwise to undertake the investigation which may prove necessary to a complete report of an event. THE NEWSPAPER AND THE ADVERTISER The financial interests especially affect the paper through its advertising. The enormous growth in the volume of advertising is one of the outstanding features of the modern press. The early dailies in comparison carried few advertisements-occasional legal notices, appeals for the return of a runaway slave, announcements of a house for sale. Prior to the Civil War the largest advertisement appearing in a newspaper was said to be published in the New York Tribune at the cost of $3,000. In 1909 twenty department stores in New York City were reputed as spending $4,000,000 a year for advertising. The census for 1921 showed the receipts for the year for all newspapers and periodicals in the United States to equal $278,006,382 for sales and $528,299,378 for advertising. The inclusion of periodicals in these figures probably lowered the comparative amount spent for advertising. Statistics secured for seventeen newspapers averaging 8,200 copies showed the amount received from advertising to be two or three times that received from sales.3 2 It is obvious that advertising is a far greater source of revenue for the newspaper than sales. For this reason the paper is anxious to keep and secure the widest range of advertisements possible. It combines with its sale of the news the sale of publicity. This combination has advantages for paper, advertiser, and reader. It increases the paper's revenue. It enables the advertiser to reach the greatest number of persons. It permits the people to buy their news more cheaply, to receive comprehensive information concerning goods offered for sale. 2 Holt, Hamilton, "Commercialism and Journalism," pp. 10-13. 3 Harris, E. P., and Hooke, F. H., "The Community Newspaper," pp. 237238, footnote. While advertisements have become an important part of every paper, they are not as essential as a wide circulation. Without readers the paper loses its reason for existence. Its advertisers withdraw their patronage. For these reasons there is perhaps less suppression of news in the interests of advertisers than is sometimes supposed. Advertising or other big business enterprises may temporarily effect a muzzling of the news. This is particularly true when the paper concerned is not strong enough to withstand their pressure. If the public becomes cognizant of the situation the paper declines in popularity. Certain Philadelphia papers have suffered such a loss of prestige. In several instances they have refrained from publishing news to protect department store advertisers. One case of suppression concerned a crime in which a member of one of the large drygoods houses was involved. Another had to do with the inadequacy of fire appliances in a store which advertised largely in the press. A third dealt with the question of profiteering. One of the largest department stores of Philadelphia and New York was the offender. The news did not appear in the Philadelphia papers but was given prominence in the more independent New York press. The World placed it on the front page. The Tribune put it opposite a full-page advertisement of the store in question.* The intelligent newspaper readers of the Philadelphia press will not soon forget these incidents. Probably the papers have learned a lesson, and certainly the discriminating subscriber has done so. Advertising interests have sometimes succeeded in dominating some individual paper. But on the whole, the great papers of the day refuse to publish the old-time fraudulent advertisements, and keep their columns clean of undue influence from this source. The farsighted advertiser has come to realize that attempted regulation of the news does not pay. It is usually discovered, for other papers and periodicals are ever watchful. If the people become cognizant of collusion between paper and advertiser to suppress news the paper loses circulation, the advertiser business. THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION FROM MARCH, 1917, TO Suppression of news in the interest of advertisers does not offer the temptation and difficulties which are created by a time of 4 Nation, May 29, 1920, 110, 709; June 26, 1920, 110, 841. |