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It is a subject in +which everybody is interested, and about which it is not polite to say +that anybody is not well informed; for, although there are scattered +through the land many persons, I am sorry to say, unable to pay for a +newspaper, I have never yet heard of anybody unable to edit one. + +The topic has many points of view, and invites various study and comment. +In our limited time we must select one only. We have heard a great deal +about the power, the opportunity, the duty, the "mission," of the press. +The time has come for a more philosophical treatment of it, for an +inquiry into its relations to our complex civilization, for some ethical +account of it as one of the developments of our day, and for some +discussion of the effect it is producing, and likely to produce, on the +education of the people. Has the time come, or is it near at hand, when +we can point to a person who is alert, superficial, ready and shallow, +self-confident and half-informed, and say, "There is a product of the +American newspaper"? The newspaper is not a willful creation, nor an +isolated phenomenon, but the legitimate outcome of our age, as much as +our system of popular education. And I trust that some competent +observer will make, perhaps for this association, a philosophical study +of it. My task here is a much humbler one. I have thought that it may +not be unprofitable to treat the newspaper from a practical and even +somewhat mechanical point of view. + +The newspaper is a private enterprise. Its object is to make money for +its owner. Whatever motive may be given out for starting a newspaper, +expectation of profit by it is the real one, whether the newspaper is +religious, political, scientific, or literary. The exceptional cases of +newspapers devoted to ideas or "causes" without regard to profit are so +few as not to affect the rule. Commonly, the cause, the sect, the party, +the trade, the delusion, the idea, gets its newspaper, its organ, its +advocate, only when some individual thinks he can see a pecuniary return +in establishing it. + +This motive is not lower than that which leads people into any other +occupation or profession. To make a living, and to have a career, is the +original incentive in all cases. Even in purely philanthropical +enterprises the driving-wheel that keeps them in motion for any length of +time is the salary paid the working members. So powerful is this +incentive that sometimes the wheel will continue to turn round when there +is no grist to grind. It sometimes happens that the friction of the +philanthropic machinery is so great that but very little power is +transmitted to the object for which the machinery was made. I knew a +devoted agent of the American Colonization Society, who, for several +years, collected in Connecticut just enough, for the cause, to buy his +clothes, and pay his board at a good hotel. + +It is scarcely necessary to say, except to prevent a possible +misapprehension, that the editor who has no high ideals, no intention of +benefiting his fellow-men by his newspaper, and uses it unscrupulously as +a means of money-making only, sinks to the level of the physician and the +lawyer who have no higher conception of their callings than that they +offer opportunities for getting money by appeals to credulity, and by +assisting in evasions of the law. + +If the excellence of a newspaper is not always measured by its +profitableness, it is generally true that, if it does not pay its owner, +it is valueless to the public. Not all newspapers which make money are +good, for some succeed by catering to the lowest tastes of respectable +people, and to the prejudice, ignorance, and passion of the lowest class; +but, as a rule, the successful journal pecuniarily is the best journal. +The reasons for this are on the surface. The impecunious newspaper +cannot give its readers promptly the news, nor able discussion of the +news, and, still worse, it cannot be independent. The political journal +that relies for support upon drippings of party favor or patronage, the +general newspaper that finds it necessary to existence to manipulate +stock reports, the religious weekly that draws precarious support from +puffing doubtful enterprises, the literary paper that depends upon the +approval of publishers, are poor affairs, and, in the long run or short +run, come to grief. Some newspapers do succeed by sensationalism, as +some preachers do; by a kind of quackery, as some doctors do; by trimming +and shifting to any momentary popular prejudice, as some politicians do; +by becoming the paid advocate of a personal ambition or a corporate +enterprise, as some lawyers do: but the newspaper only becomes a real +power when it is able, on the basis of pecuniary independence, to free +itself from all such entanglements. An editor who stands with hat in +hand has the respect accorded to any other beggar. + +The recognition of the fact that the newspaper is a private and purely +business enterprise will help to define the mutual relations of the +editor and the public. His claim upon the public is exactly that of any +manufacturer or dealer. It is that of the man who makes cloth, or the +grocer who opens a shop--neither has a right to complain if the public +does not buy of him. If the buyer does not like a cloth half shoddy, or +coffee half-chicory, he will go elsewhere. If the subscriber does not +like one newspaper, he takes another, or none. The appeal for newspaper +support on the ground that such a journal ought to be sustained by an +enlightened community, or on any other ground than that it is a good +article that people want,--or would want if they knew its value,--is +purely childish in this age of the world. If any person wants to start a +periodical devoted to decorated teapots, with the noble view of inducing +the people to live up to his idea of a teapot, very good; but he has no +right to complain if he fails. + +On the other hand, the public has no rights in the newspaper except what +it pays for; even the "old subscriber" has none, except to drop the paper +if it ceases to please him. The notion that the subscriber has a right +to interfere in the conduct of the paper, or the reader to direct its +opinions, is based on a misconception of what the newspaper is. The +claim of the public to have its communications printed in the paper is +equally baseless. Whether they shall be printed or not rests in the +discretion of the editor, having reference to his own private interest, +and to his apprehension of the public good. Nor is he bound to give any +reason for his refusal. It is purely in his discretion whether he will +admit a reply to any thing that has appeared in his columns. No one has +a right to demand it. Courtesy and policy may grant it; but the right to +it does not exist. If any one is injured, he may seek his remedy at law; +and I should like to see the law of libel such and so administered that +any person injured by a libel in the newspaper, as well as by slander out +of it, could be sure of prompt redress. While the subscribes acquires no +right to dictate to the newspaper, we can imagine an extreme case when he +should have his money back which had been paid in advance, if the +newspaper totally changed its character. If he had contracted with a +dealer to supply him with hard coal during the winter, he might have a +remedy if the dealer delivered only charcoal in the coldest weather; and +so if he paid for a Roman Catholic journal which suddenly became an organ +of the spiritists. + +The advertiser acquires no more rights in the newspaper than the +subscriber. He is entitled to use the space for which he pays by the +insertion of such material as is approved by the editor. He gains no +interest in any other part of the paper, and has no more claim to any +space in the editorial columns, than any other one of the public. To +give him such space would be unbusiness-like, and the extension of a +preference which would be unjust to the rest of the public. Nothing more +quickly destroys the character of a journal, begets distrust of it, and +so reduces its value, than the well-founded suspicion that its editorial +columns are the property of advertisers. Even a religious journal will, +after a while, be injured by this. + +Yet it must be confessed that here is one of the greatest difficulties of +modern journalism. The newspaper must be cheap. It is, considering the +immense cost to produce it, the cheapest product ever offered to man. +Most newspapers cost more than they sell for; they could not live by +subscriptions; for any profits, they certainly depend upon +advertisements. The advertisements depend upon the circulation; the +circulation is likely to dwindle if too much space is occupied by +advertisements, or if it is evident that the paper belongs to its favored +advertisers. The counting-room desires to conciliate the advertisers; +the editor looks to making a paper satisfactory to his readers. Between +this see-saw of the necessary subscriber and the necessary advertiser, a +good many newspapers go down. This difficulty would be measurably +removed by the admission of the truth that the newspaper is a strictly +business enterprise, depending for success upon a 'quid pro quo' between +all parties connected with it, and upon integrity in its management. + +Akin to the false notion that the newspaper is a sort of open channel +that the public may use as it chooses, is the conception of it as a +charitable institution. The newspaper, which is the property of a +private person as much as a drug-shop is, is expected to perform for +nothing services which would be asked of no other private person. There +is scarcely a charitable enterprise to which it is not asked to +contribute of its space, which is money, ten times more than other +persons in the community, who are ten times as able as the owner of the +newspaper, contribute. The journal is considered "mean" if it will not +surrender its columns freely to notices and announcements of this sort. +If a manager has a new hen-coop or a new singer he wishes to introduce to +the public, he comes to the newspaper, expecting to have his enterprise +extolled for nothing, and probably never thinks that it would be just as +proper for him to go to one of the regular advertisers in the paper and +ask him to give up his space. Anything, from a church picnic to a brass- +band concert for the benefit of the widow of the triangles, asks the +newspaper to contribute. The party in politics, whose principles the +editor advocates, has no doubt of its rightful claim upon him, not only +upon the editorial columns, but upon the whole newspaper. It asks +without hesitation that the newspaper should take up its valuable space +by printing hundreds and often thousands of dollars' worth of political +announcements in the course of a protracted campaign, when it never would +think of getting its halls, its speakers, and its brass bands, free of +expense. Churches, as well as parties, expect this sort of charity. +I have known rich churches, to whose members it was a convenience to have +their Sunday and other services announced, withdraw the announcements +when the editor declined any longer to contribute a weekly fifty-cents' +worth of space. No private persons contribute so much to charity, in +proportion to ability, as the newspaper. Perhaps it will get credit for +this in the next world: it certainly never does in this. + +The chief function of the newspaper is to collect and print the news. +Upon the kind of news that should be gathered and published, we shall +remark farther on. The second function is to elucidate the news, and +comment on it, and show its relations. A third function is to furnish +reading-matter to the general public. + +Nothing is so difficult for the manager as to know what news is: the +instinct for it is a sort of sixth sense. To discern out of the mass of +materials collected not only what is most likely to interest the public, +but what phase and aspect of it will attract most attention, and the +relative importance of it; to tell the day before or at midnight what the +world will be talking about in the morning, and what it will want the +fullest details of, and to meet that want in advance,--requires a +peculiar talent. There is always some topic on which the public wants +instant information. It is easy enough when the news is developed, and +everybody is discussing it, for the editor to fall in; but the success of +the news printed depends upon a pre-apprehension of all this. Some +papers, which nevertheless print all the news, are always a day behind, +do not appreciate the popular drift till it has gone to something else, +and err as much by clinging to a subject after it is dead as by not +taking it up before it was fairly born. The public craves eagerly for +only one thing at a time, and soon wearies of that; and it is to the +newspaper's profit to seize the exact point of a debate, the thrilling +moment of an accident, the pith of an important discourse; to throw +itself into it as if life depended on it, and for the hour to flood the +popular curiosity with it as an engine deluges a fire. + +Scarcely less important than promptly seizing and printing the news is +the attractive arrangement of it, its effective presentation to the eye. +Two papers may have exactly the same important intelligence, identically +the same despatches: the one will be called bright, attractive, "newsy"; +the other, dull and stupid. + +We have said nothing yet about that, which, to most people, is the most +important aspect of the newspaper,--the editor's responsibility to the +public for its contents. It is sufficient briefly to say here, that it +is exactly the responsibility of every other person in society,--the full +responsibility of his opportunity. He has voluntarily taken a position +in which he can do a great deal of good or a great deal of evil, and he, +should be held and judged by his opportunity: it is greater than that of +the preacher, the teacher, the congressman, the physician. He occupies +the loftiest pulpit; he is in his teacher's desk seven days in the week; +his voice can be heard farther than that of the most lusty fog-horn +politician; and often, I am sorry to say, his columns outshine the +shelves of the druggist in display of proprietary medicines. Nothing +else ever invented has the public attention as the newspaper has, or is +an influence so constant and universal. It is this large opportunity +that has given the impression that the newspaper is a public rather than +a private enterprise. + +It was a nebulous but suggestive remark that the newspaper occupies the +borderland between literature and common sense. Literature it certainly +is not, and in the popular apprehension it seems often too erratic and +variable to be credited with the balance-wheel of sense; but it must have +something of the charm of the one, and the steadiness and sagacity of the +other, or it will fail to please. The model editor, I believe, has yet +to appear. Notwithstanding the traditional reputation of certain editors +in the past, they could not be called great editors by our standards; for +the elements of modern journalism did not exist in their time. The old +newspaper was a broadside of stale news, with a moral essay attached. +Perhaps Benjamin Franklin, with our facilities, would have been very near +the ideal editor. There was nothing he did not wish to know; and no one +excelled him in the ability to communicate what he found out to the +average mind. He came as near as anybody ever did to marrying common +sense to literature: he had it in him to make it sufficient for +journalistic purposes. He was what somebody said Carlyle was, and what +the American editor ought to be,--a vernacular man. + +The assertion has been made recently, publicly, and with evidence +adduced, that the American newspaper is the best in the world. It is +like the assertion that the American government is the best in the world; +no doubt it is, for the American people. + +Judged by broad standards, it may safely be admitted that the American +newspaper is susceptible of some improvement, and that it has something +to learn from the journals of other nations. We shall be better employed +in correcting its weaknesses than in complacently contemplating its +excellences. + +Let us examine it in its three departments already named,--its news, +editorials, and miscellaneous reading-matter. + +In particularity and comprehensiveness of news-collecting, it may be +admitted that the American newspapers for a time led the world. I mean +in the picking-up of local intelligence, and the use of the telegraph to +make it general. And with this arose the odd notion that news is made +important by the mere fact of its rapid transmission over the wire. The +English journals followed, speedily overtook, and some of the wealthier +ones perhaps surpassed, the American in the use of the telegraph, and in +the presentation of some sorts of local news; not of casualties, and +small city and neighborhood events, and social gossip (until very +recently), but certainly in the business of the law courts, and the +crimes and mishaps that come within police and legal supervision. The +leading papers of the German press, though strong in correspondence and +in discussion of affairs, are far less comprehensive in their news than +the American or the English. The French journals, we are accustomed to +say, are not newspapers at all. And this is true as we use the word. +Until recently, nothing has been of importance to the Frenchman except +himself; and what happened outside of France, not directly affecting his +glory, his profit, or his pleasure, did not interest him: hence, one +could nowhere so securely intrench himself against the news of the world +as behind the barricade of the Paris journals. But let us not make a +mistake in this matter. We may have more to learn from the Paris +journals than from any others. If they do not give what we call news-- +local news, events, casualties, the happenings of the day,--they do give +ideas, opinions; they do discuss politics, the social drift; they give +the intellectual ferment of Paris; they supply the material that Paris +likes to talk over, the badinage of the boulevard, the wit of the salon, +the sensation of the stage, the new movement in literature and in +politics. This may be important, or it may be trivial: it is commonly +more interesting than much of that which we call news. + +Our very facility and enterprise in news-gathering have overwhelmed our +newspapers, and it may be remarked that editorial discrimination has not +kept pace with the facilities. We are overpowered with a mass of +undigested intelligence, collected for the mast part without regard to +value. The force of the newspaper is expended in extending these +facilities, with little regard to discriminating selection. The burden +is already too heavy for the newspaper, and wearisome to the public. + +The publication of the news is the most important function of the paper. +How is it gathered? We must confess that it is gathered very much by +chance. A drag-net is thrown out, and whatever comes is taken. An +examination into the process of collecting shows what sort of news we are +likely to get, and that nine-tenths of that printed is collected without +much intelligence exercised in selection. The alliance of the associated +press with the telegraph company is a fruitful source of news of an +inferior quality. Of course, it is for the interest of the telegraph +company to swell the volume to be transmitted. It is impossible for the +associated press to have an agent in every place to which the telegraph +penetrates: therefore the telegraphic operators often act as its +purveyors. It is for their interest to send something; and their +judgment of what is important is not only biased, but is formed by purely +local standards. Our news, therefore, is largely set in motion by +telegraphic operators, by agents trained to regard only the accidental, +the startling, the abnormal, as news; it is picked up by sharp prowlers +about town, whose pay depends upon finding something, who are looking for +something spicy and sensational, or which may be dressed up and +exaggerated to satisfy an appetite for novelty and high flavor, and who +regard casualties as the chief news. Our newspapers every day are loaded +with accidents, casualties, and crimes concerning people of whom we never +heard before and never shall hear again, the reading of which is of no +earthly use to any human being. + +What is news? What is it that an intelligent public should care to hear +of and talk about? Run your eye down the columns of your journal. There +was a drunken squabble last night in a New York groggery; there is a +petty but carefully elaborated village scandal about a foolish girl; a +woman accidentally dropped her baby out of a fourth-story window in +Maine; in Connecticut, a wife, by mistake, got into the same railway +train with another woman's husband; a child fell into a well in New +Jersey; there is a column about a peripatetic horse-race, which exhibits, +like a circus, from city to city; a laborer in a remote town in +Pennsylvania had a sunstroke; there is an edifying dying speech of a +murderer, the love-letter of a suicide, the set-to of a couple of +congressmen; and there are columns about a gigantic war of half a dozen +politicians over the appointment of a sugar-gauger. Granted that this +pabulum is desired by the reader, why not save the expense of +transmission by having several columns of it stereotyped, to be +reproduced at proper intervals? With the date changed, it would always, +have its original value, and perfectly satisfy the demand, if a demand +exists, for this sort of news. + +This is not, as you see, a description of your journal: it is a +description of only one portion of it. It is a complex and wonderful +creation. Every morning it is a mirror of the world, more or less +distorted and imperfect, but such a mirror as it never had held up to it +before. But consider how much space is taken up with mere trivialities +and vulgarities under the name of news. And this evil is likely to +continue and increase until news-gatherers learn that more important than +the reports of accidents and casualties is the intelligence of opinions +and thoughts, the moral and intellectual movements of modern life. A +horrible assassination in India is instantly telegraphed; but the +progress of such a vast movement as that of the Wahabee revival in Islam, +which may change the destiny of great provinces, never gets itself put +upon the wires. We hear promptly of a landslide in Switzerland, but only +very slowly of a political agitation that is changing the constitution of +the republic. It should be said, however, that the daily newspaper is +not alone responsible for this: it is what the age and the community +where it is published make it. So far as I have observed, the majority +of the readers in America peruses eagerly three columns about a mill +between an English and a naturalized American prize-fighter, but will +only glance at a column report of a debate in the English parliament +which involves a radical change in the whole policy of England; and +devours a page about the Chantilly races, while it ignores a paragraph +concerning the suppression of the Jesuit schools. + +Our newspapers are overwhelmed with material that is of no importance. +The obvious remedy for this would be more intelligent direction in the +collection of news, and more careful sifting and supervision of it when +gathered. It becomes every day more apparent to every manager that such +discrimination is more necessary. There is no limit to the various +intelligence and gossip that our complex life offers--no paper is big +enough to contain it; no reader has time enough to read it. And the +journal must cease to be a sort of waste-basket at the end of a telegraph +wire, into which any reporter, telegraph operator, or gossip-monger can +dump whatever he pleases. We must get rid of the superstition that value +is given to an unimportant "item" by sending it a thousand miles over a +wire. + +Perhaps the most striking feature of the American newspaper, especially +of the country weekly, is its enormous development of local and +neighborhood news. It is of recent date. Horace Greeley used to advise +the country editors to give small space to the general news of the world, +but to cultivate assiduously the home field, to glean every possible +detail of private life in the circuit of the county, and print it. The +advice was shrewd for a metropolitan editor, and it was not without its +profit to the country editor. It was founded on a deep knowledge of +human nature; namely, upon the fact that people read most eagerly that +which they already know, if it is about themselves or their neighbors, if +it is a report of something they have been concerned in, a lecture they +have heard, a fair, or festival, or wedding, or funeral, or barn-raising +they have attended. The result is column after column of short +paragraphs of gossip and trivialities, chips, chips, chips. Mr. Sales is +contemplating erecting a new counter in his store; his rival opposite has +a new sign; Miss Bumps of Gath is visiting her cousin, Miss Smith of +Bozrah; the sheriff has painted his fence; Farmer Brown has lost his cow; +the eminent member from Neopolis has put an ell on one end of his +mansion, and a mortgage on the other. + +On the face of it nothing is so vapid and profitless as column after +column of this reading. These "items" have very little interest, except +to those who already know the facts; but those concerned like to see them +in print, and take the newspaper on that account. This sort of inanity +takes the place of reading-matter that might be of benefit, and its +effect must be to belittle and contract the mind. But this is not the +most serious objection to the publication of these worthless details. +It cultivates self-consciousness in the community, and love of notoriety; +it develops vanity and self-importance, and elevates the trivial in life +above the essential. + +And this brings me to speak of the mania in this age, and especially in +America, for notoriety in social life as well as in politics. The +newspapers are the vehicle of it, sometimes the occasion, but not the +cause. The newspaper may have fostered--it has not created--this hunger +for publicity. Almost everybody talks about the violation of decency and +the sanctity of private life by the newspaper in the publication of +personalities and the gossip of society; and the very people who make +these strictures are often those who regard the paper as without +enterprise and dull, if it does not report in detail their weddings, +their balls and parties, the distinguished persons present, the dress of +the ladies, the sumptuousness of the entertainment, if it does not +celebrate their church services and festivities, their social meetings, +their new house, their distinguished arrivals at this or that watering- +place. I believe every newspaper manager will bear me out in saying that +there is a constant pressure on him to print much more of such private +matter than his judgment and taste permit or approve, and that the gossip +which is brought to his notice, with the hope that he will violate the +sensitiveness of social life by printing it, is far away larger in amount +than all that he publishes. + +To return for a moment to the subject of general news. The +characteristic of our modern civilization is sensitiveness, or, as the +doctors say, nervousness. Perhaps the philanthropist would term it +sympathy. No doubt an exciting cause of it is the adaptation of +electricity to the transmission of facts and ideas. The telegraph, we +say, has put us in sympathy with all the world. And we reckon this +enlargement of nerve contact somehow a gain. Our bared nerves are played +upon by a thousand wires. Nature, no doubt, has a method of hardening or +deadening them to these shocks; but nevertheless, every person who reads +is a focus for the excitements, the ills, the troubles, of all the world. +In addition to his local pleasures and annoyances, he is in a manner +compelled to be a sharer in the universal uneasiness. It might be worth +while to inquire what effect this exciting accumulation of the news of +the world upon an individual or a community has upon happiness and upon +character. Is the New England man any better able to bear or deal with +his extraordinary climate by the daily knowledge of the weather all over +the globe? Is a man happier, or improved in character, by the woful tale +of a world's distress and apprehension that greets him every morning at +breakfast? Knowledge, we know, increases sorrow; but I suppose the +offset to that is, that strength only comes through suffering. But this +is a digression. + +Not second in importance to any department of the journal is the +reporting; that is, the special reporting as distinguished from the more +general news-gathering. I mean the reports of proceedings in Congress, +in conventions, assemblies, and conferences, public conversations, +lectures, sermons, investigations, law trials, and occurrences of all +sorts that rise into general importance. These reports are the basis of +our knowledge and opinions. If they are false or exaggerated, we are +ignorant of what is taking place, and misled. It is of infinitely more +importance that they should be absolutely trustworthy than that the +editorial comments should be sound and wise. If the reports on affairs +can be depended on, the public can form its own opinion, and act +intelligently. And; if the public has a right to demand anything of a +newspaper, it is that its reports of what occurs shall be faithfully +accurate, unprejudiced, and colorless. They ought not, to be editorials, +or the vehicles of personal opinion and feeling. The interpretation of, +the facts they give should be left to the editor and the public. There +should be a sharp line drawn between the report and the editorial. + +I am inclined to think that the reporting department is the weakest in +the American newspaper, and that there is just ground for the admitted +public distrust of it. Too often, if a person would know what has taken +place in a given case, he must read the reports in half a dozen journals, +then strike a general average of probabilities, allowing for the personal +equation, and then--suspend his judgment. Of course, there is much +excellent reporting, and there are many able men engaged in it who +reflect the highest honor upon their occupation. And the press of no +other country shows more occasional brilliant feats in reporting than +ours: these are on occasions when the newspapers make special efforts. +Take the last two national party conventions. The fullness, the +accuracy, the vividness, with which their proceedings were reported in +the leading journals, were marvelous triumphs of knowledge, skill, and +expense. The conventions were so photographed by hundreds of pens, that +the public outside saw them almost as distinctly as the crowd in +attendance. This result was attained because the editors determined that +it should be, sent able men to report, and demanded the best work. But +take an opposite and a daily illustration of reporting, that of the +debates and proceedings in Congress. I do not refer to the specials of +various journals which are good, bad, or indifferent, as the case may be, +and commonly colored by partisan considerations, but the regular synopsis +sent to the country at large. Now, for some years it has been +inadequate, frequently unintelligible, often grossly misleading, failing +wholly to give the real spirit and meaning of the most important +discussions; and it is as dry as chips besides. To be both stupid and +inaccurate is the unpardonable sin in journalism. Contrast these reports +with the lively and faithful pictures of the French Assembly which are +served to the Paris papers. + +Before speaking of the reasons for the public distrust in reports, it is +proper to put in one qualification. The public itself, and not the +newspapers, is the great factory of baseless rumors and untruths. +Although the newspaper unavoidably gives currency to some of these, it is +the great corrector of popular rumors. Concerning any event, a hundred +different versions and conflicting accounts are instantly set afloat. +These would run on, and become settled but unfounded beliefs, as private +whispered scandals do run, if the newspaper did not intervene. It is the +business of the newspaper, on every occurrence of moment, to chase down +the rumors, and to find out the facts and print them, and set the public +mind at rest. The newspaper publishes them under a sense of +responsibility for its statements. It is not by any means always +correct; but I know that it is the aim of most newspapers to discharge +this important public function faithfully. When this country had few +newspapers it was ten times more the prey of false reports and delusions +than it is now. + +Reporting requires as high ability as editorial writing; perhaps of a +different kind, though in the history of American journalism the best +reporters have often become the best editors. Talent of this kind must +be adequately paid; and it happens that in America the reporting field is +so vast that few journals can afford to make the reporting department +correspond in ability to the editorial, and I doubt if the importance of +doing so is yet fully realized. An intelligent and representative +synopsis of a lecture or other public performance is rare. The ability +to grasp a speaker's meaning, or to follow a long discourse, and +reproduce either in spirit, and fairly, in a short space, is not common. +When the public which has been present reads the inaccurate report, it +loses confidence in the newspaper. + +Its confidence is again undermined when it learns that an "interview " +which it has read with interest was manufactured; that the report of the +movements and sayings of a distinguished stranger was a pure piece of +ingenious invention; that a thrilling adventure alongshore, or in a +balloon, or in a horse-car, was what is called a sensational article, +concocted by some brilliant genius, and spun out by the yard according to +his necessities. These reports are entertaining, and often more readable +than anything else in the newspaper; and, if they were put into a +department with an appropriate heading, the public would be less +suspicious that all the news in the journal was colored and heightened by +a lively imagination. + +Intelligent and honest reporting of whatever interests the public is the +sound basis of all journalism. And yet so careless have editors been of +all this that a reporter has been sent to attend the sessions of a +philological convention who had not the least linguistic knowledge, +having always been employed on marine disasters. Another reporter, who +was assigned to inform the public of the results of a difficult +archeological investigation, frankly confessed his inability to +understand what was going on; for his ordinary business, he said, was +cattle. A story is told of a metropolitan journal, which illustrates +another difficulty the public has in keeping up its confidence in +newspaper infallibility. It may not be true for history, but answers for +an illustration. The annual November meteors were expected on a certain +night. The journal prepared an elaborate article, several columns in +length, on meteoric displays in general, and on the display of that night +in particular, giving in detail the appearance of the heavens from the +metropolitan roofs in various parts of the city, the shooting of the +meteors amid the blazing constellations, the size and times of flight of +the fiery bodies; in short, a most vivid and scientific account of the +lofty fireworks. Unfortunately the night was cloudy. The article was in +type and ready; but the clouds would not break. The last moment for +going to press arrived: there was a probability that the clouds would +lift before daylight and the manager took the risk. The article that +appeared was very interesting; but its scientific value was impaired by +the fact that the heavens were obscured the whole night, and the meteors, +if any arrived, were invisible. The reasonable excuse of the editor +would be that he could not control the elements. + +If the reporting department needs strengthening and reduction to order in +the American journal, we may also query whether the department of +correspondence sustains the boast that the American, newspaper is the +best in the world. We have a good deal of excellent correspondence, both +foreign and domestic; and our "specials" have won distinction, at least +for liveliness and enterprise. I cannot dwell upon this feature; but I +suggest a comparison with the correspondence of some of the German, and +with that especially of the London journals, from the various capitals of +Europe, and from the occasional seats of war. How surpassing able much +of it is! + +How full of information, of philosophic observation, of accurate +knowledge! It appears to be written by men of trained intellect and of +experience,--educated men of the world, who, by reason of their position +and character, have access to the highest sources of information. + +The editorials of our journals seem to me better than formerly, improved +in tone, in courtesy, in self-respect,--though you may not have to go far +or search long for the provincial note and the easy grace of the +frontier,--and they are better written. This is because the newspaper +has become more profitable, and is able to pay for talent, and has +attracted to it educated young men. There is a sort of editorial +ability, of facility, of force, that can only be acquired by practice and +in the newspaper office: no school can ever teach it; but the young +editor who has a broad basis of general education, of information in +history, political economy, the classics, and polite literature, has an +immense advantage over the man who has merely practical experience. For +the editorial, if it is to hold its place, must be more and more the +product of information, culture, and reflection, as well as of sagacity +and alertness. Ignorance of foreign affairs, and of economic science, +the American people have in times past winked at; but they will not +always wink at it. + +It is the belief of some shrewd observers that editorials, the long +editorials, are not much read, except by editors themselves. A cynic +says that, if you have a secret you are very anxious to keep from the +female portion of the population, the safest place to put it is in an +editorial. It seems to me that editorials are not conned as attentively +as they once were; and I am sure they have not so much influence as +formerly. People are not so easily or so visibly led; that is to say, +the editorial influence is not so dogmatic and direct. The editor does +not expect to form public opinion so much by arguments and appeals as by +the news he presents and his manner of presenting it, by the iteration of +an idea until it becomes familiar, by the reading-matter selected, and by +the quotations of opinions as news, and not professedly to influence the +reader. And this influence is all the more potent because it is +indirect, and not perceived-by the reader. + +There is an editorial tradition--it might almost be termed a +superstition--which I think will have to be abandoned. It is that a +certain space in the journal must be filled with editorial, and that some +of the editorials must be long, without any reference to the news or the +necessity of comment on it, or the capacity of the editor at the moment +to fill the space with original matter that is readable. There is the +sacred space, and it must be filled. The London journals are perfect +types of this custom. The result is often a wearisome page of words and +rhetoric. It may be good rhetoric; but life is too short for so much of +it. The necessity of filling this space causes the writer, instead of +stating his idea in the shortest compass in which it can be made +perspicuous and telling, to beat it out thin, and make it cover as much +ground as possible. This, also, is vanity. In the economy of room, +which our journals will more and more be compelled to cultivate, I +venture to say that this tradition will be set aside. I think that we +may fairly claim a superiority in our journals over the English dailies +in our habit of making brief, pointed editorial paragraphs. They are the +life of the editorial page. A cultivation of these until they are as +finished and pregnant as the paragraphs of "The London Spectator" and +"The New-York Nation," the printing of long editorials only when the +elucidation of a subject demands length, and the use of the space thus +saved for more interesting reading, is probably the line of our editorial +evolution. + +To continue the comparison of our journals as a class, with the English +as a class, ours are more lively, also more flippant, and less restrained +by a sense of responsibility or by the laws of libel. We furnish, now +and again, as good editorial writing for its purpose; but it commonly +lacks the dignity, the thoroughness, the wide sweep and knowledge, that +characterizes the best English discussion of political and social topics. + +The third department of the newspaper is that of miscellaneous reading- +matter. Whether this is the survival of the period when the paper +contained little else except "selections," and other printed matter was +scarce, or whether it is only the beginning of a development that shall +supply the public nearly all its literature, I do not know. Far as our +newspapers have already gone in this direction, I am inclined to think +that in their evolution they must drop this adjunct, and print simply the +news of the day. Some of the leading journals of the world already do +this. + +In America I am sure the papers are printing too much miscellaneous +reading. The perusal of this smattering of everything, these scraps of +information and snatches of literature, this infinite variety and medley, +in which no subject is adequately treated, is distracting and +debilitating to the mind. It prevents the reading of anything in full, +and its satisfactory assimilation. It is said that the majority of +Americans read nothing except the paper. If they read that thoroughly, +they have time for nothing else. What is its reader to do when his +journal thrusts upon him every day the amount contained in a fair-sized +duodecimo volume, and on Sundays the amount of two of them? Granted that +this miscellaneous hodge-podge is the cream of current literature, is it +profitable to the reader? Is it a means of anything but superficial +culture and fragmentary information? Besides, it stimulates an unnatural +appetite, a liking for the striking, the brilliant, the sensational only; +for our selections from current literature are, usually the "plums"; and +plums are not a wholesome-diet for anybody. A person accustomed to this +finds it difficult to sit down patiently to the mastery of a book or a +subject, to the study of history, the perusal of extended biography, or +to acquire that intellectual development and strength which comes from +thorough reading and reflection. + +The subject has another aspect. Nobody chooses his own reading; and a +whole community perusing substantially the same material tends to a +mental uniformity. The editor has the more than royal power of selecting +the intellectual food of a large public. It is a responsibility +infinitely greater than that of the compiler of schoolbooks, great as +that is. The taste of the editor, or of some assistant who uses the +scissors, is in a manner forced upon thousands of people, who see little +other printed matter than that which he gives them. Suppose his taste +runs to murders and abnormal crimes, and to the sensational in +literature: what will be the moral effect upon a community of reading +this year after year? + +If this excess of daily miscellany is deleterious to the public, I doubt +if it will be, in the long run, profitable to the newspaper, which has a +field broad enough in reporting and commenting upon the movement of the +world, without attempting to absorb the whole reading field. + +I should like to say a word, if time permitted, upon the form of the +journal, and about advertisements. I look to see advertisements shorter, +printed with less display, and more numerous. In addition to the use now +made of the newspaper by the classes called "advertisers," I expect it to +become the handy medium of the entire public, the means of ready +communication in regard to all wants and exchanges. + +Several years ago, the attention of the publishers of American newspapers +was called to the convenient form of certain daily journals in South +Germany, which were made up in small pages, the number of which varied +from day to day, according to the pressure of news or of advertisements. +The suggestion as to form has been adopted bit many of our religious, +literary, and special weeklies, to the great convenience of the readers, +and I doubt not of the publishers also. Nothing is more unwieldy than +our big blanket-sheets: they are awkward to handle, inconvenient to read, +unhandy to bind and preserve. It is difficult to classify matter in +them. In dull seasons they are too large; in times of brisk advertising, +and in the sudden access of important news, they are too small. To +enlarge them for the occasion, resort is had to a troublesome fly-sheet, +or, if they are doubled, there is more space to be filled than is needed. +It seems to me that the inevitable remedy is a newspaper of small pages +or forms, indefinite in number, that can at any hour be increased or +diminished according to necessity, to be folded, stitched, and cut by +machinery. + +We have thus rapidly run over a prolific field, touching only upon some +of the relations of the newspaper to our civilization, and omitting many +of the more important and grave. The truth is that the development of +the modern journal has been so sudden and marvelous that its conductors +find themselves in possession of a machine that they scarcely know how to +manage or direct. The change in the newspaper caused by the telegraph, +the cable, and by a public demand for news created by wars, by +discoveries, and by a new outburst of the spirit of doubt and inquiry, is +enormous. The public mind is confused about it, and alternately +overestimates and underestimates the press, failing to see how integral +and representative a part it is of modern life. + +"The power of the press," as something to be feared ;or admired, is a +favorite theme of dinner-table orators and clergymen. One would think it +was some compactly wielded energy, like that of an organized religious +order, with a possible danger in it to the public welfare. +Discrimination is not made between the power of the printed word--which +is limitless--and the influence that a newspaper, as such, exerts. The +power of the press is in its facility for making public opinions and +events. I should say it is a medium of force rather than force itself. +I confess that I am oftener impressed with the powerlessness of the press +than otherwise, its slight influence in bringing about any reform, or in +inducing the public to do what is for its own good and what it is +disinclined to do. Talk about the power of the press, say, in a +legislature, when once the members are suspicious that somebody is trying +to influence them, and see how the press will retire, with what grace it +can, before an invincible and virtuous lobby. The fear of the +combination of the press for any improper purpose, or long for any proper +purpose, is chimerical. Whomever the newspapers agree with, they do not +agree with each other. The public itself never takes so many conflicting +views of any topic or event as the ingenious rival journals are certain +to discover. It is impossible, in their nature, for them to combine. +I should as soon expect agreement among doctors in their empirical +profession. And there is scarcely ever a cause, or an opinion, or a man, +that does not get somewhere in the press a hearer and a defender. We +will drop the subject with one remark for the benefit of whom it may +concern. With all its faults, I believe the moral tone of the American +newspaper is higher, as a rule, than that of the community in which it is +published. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext American Newspaper, by C. D. Warner + |