SOME NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES IN JOURNALISM
BY GEORGE P. CHENEY, Editor, Enterprise Record Chieftain
[One of the features of the banquet on the occasion of the Fourth Annual Newspaper Conference was Mr. Cheney's address on some of the v'.'-"l{’r('$§0S of ioirrunlism as he had olrservrd them. His charges of Prejudice and policy-colored news drew a reply from Edgar B. Piper, editor of the Oregonian, who expressed entire confidence in the fairness of the newspapers and the freedom of their news columns from h':.<. The two speakers verc thorouwhly agreed on the v:~.lu-a of jnur|i:.li-rtic rthi"s but difiered as to how far along the road toward perfection in this respect the newspapers have already gone. ]
I HAVE nothing constructive to offer. I have no inspirational message. It subaltern, a domestic advocate unceasingly suborned, employed by the proprietors to plead in their behalf.” Let no one be surprised, therefore, if
is my part to attempt an analysis or criticism of certain customs, practices
prejudice persists in the editor and news
and habits of thought found in news paper work.
Let us stand before a mirror and look at ourselves. And instead of admiring the massive dome of intellect of the composite head reflected in the glass, let us see if we cannot detect a bump of egotism. Instead of the keen and pierc
writer. Up to a decade ago prejudice formed the chief reason for the existence
of most periodicals.
it had to have such an organ and advocate wherever it sought to grow. In more recent years another conception
ing eye, perhaps we will note defective and jaundiced vision.
of the field of a newspaper has been ac
First I will speak of the city news
cepted.
papers and their writers, and I will note bundles of passions, whime. desires,
prejudices, which are the master, the guiding motives of action. IVc talk of being impartial and unbiased, and perhaps we honestly try to attain to that sublime state.
Every newspaper
was the organ and advocate of some party or faction, and every party or faction felt
The so-called independent news
paper is the consequence, and it professes to print all news, of all parties and factions, with unbiased impartiality. In this it succeeds only indifferently. In the year of a presidential election partisan feeling runs high. In such a year, not a single daily paper in the city
of—say, Boston—prints the truth, the
PREJUDICE STILL PERSISTS
pure and unadorned truth, in its politi
At several times in history man has fancied he has freed himself from the rule of the passions and has enthroned reason.
cal columns.
Misrepresentation, exaggeration and garbling of facts are practiced
without exception.
Such was the philosophy of the
Between campaigns, partisanship takes
leaders of thought of the period preceding the French Revolution, but in the fol lowing century the writer, Taine, pointed out their error, saying: “ Not only is reason not natural to
a half vacation, but it does not leave the
man
nor
universal
in
field wholly. Prejudice finds expression chiefly through the medium of special cor
respondents, and particularly the Washington
correspondents.
We
note
two
humanity, but,
classes of correspondents, those who seek
again, in the conduct of man and of humanity, its influence is small. The place
to supplement the regular news agencies and those who parallel those agencies.
obtained by reason is always restricted, the ofiice it fills is generally secondary.
the press bureaus have an admitted news
Openly or secretly, it is only a convenient
value.
Correspondents who seek to supplement
[3]
They dig up odd and out-of-the
