Oregon Exchanges
For the Newspapermen of the State of Oregon
Letting in the Laity
(By Miriam Page.)
Frank Jenkins, editor of the Eugene Morning Register, is doing the unusual and therefore the interesting thing in his column headed "About Ourselves" appearing on the editorial page of the Register "from time to time as space warrants." In it he makes the most of the opportunity open to all editors to chat informally with his readers about his paper, its aims and ideals and the machinery used in producing it. He has the whole field of the daily newspaper from which to choose his subjects and they show a pleasing variety.
Mr. Jenkins began his series of "personal chats" with a discussion of the choice of a newspaper. He advises his readers to give this choice as careful consideration as the choice of a friend. "The newspaper comes to your home each day," he says. "It sits with you at your breakfast table, and talks to you and to your family. It influences to a measurable extent your own thoughts and opinions, and it influences perhaps more than you can ever know the thoughts of your children. Whether this influence is good or evil depends upon the quality and the personality of the newspaper."
Mr. Jenkins takes occasion to score those newspapers whose chief aim is the spreading of propaganda, who "doctor" their news for a definite effect. To guard against misinterpretation of his statements in this regard he says with the man to man frankness that characterizes the whole series, "This is not a boast, of course, that every news story that appears in the Register is strictly and literally true in every detail. Absolute accuracy in every detail is not humanly possible. Reporters cannot always get every fact at first hand, and the versions, even of eye-witnesses, often differ. If you don 't believe this, ask a dozen people to relate to you what a public speaker has said, and see how widely the different accounts will vary.
"The Register has no desire to be a propagandist. It has no axes to grind; its sole desire is to relate the news in such a way that the reader may get at the facts. It believes that the people buy a newspaper in order to find out what is going on, and not in order to have their opinions
