Page:Herr Glessner Creel - Tricks of the Press (1911).djvu/23

 dogs." Do you know what a "bull-dog" is? A "bull-dog" is a newspaper printed at 12 o'clock noon today and dated 6 o'clock tomorrow night. Every great newspaper publishes its "bull-dog" or out-of-town edition. That's what you get here. Weekly newspapers or monthly periodicals do not claim to be up to date in news matters and frankly admit that their editions are printed in advance. But the dailies profess to give you the news of today—today. As a matter of fact, most of the papers for out-of-town readers are dated twenty-four hours ahead. Into these "bull-dogs" go columns and whole pages of stories the papers wouldn't dare put on the cities in which they are published.

The great papers and the press associations deliberately send out this sort of stuff. Your papers here print it with malice a forethought or in good faith, it makes no difference. They PRINT it. And bear in mind that the press is the great educator. It "molds" public opinion. That's your opinion. It's YOUR mind that the owners of the newspapers and the press associations are playing with.

If you want to make the average publisher get up on his hind feet and paw the air, just intimate that there's any connection between his business and editorial offices. With a spurt of indignation he'll prove you a fool a dozen times over. I want you a few instances.

You remember a few years ago when Corey, the steel magnate, was trying to divorce his wife and marry the actress, Mabelle Gilman. Surely! You all remember that. And you know how every paper in the country championed Corey's wife. You remember how they excoriated the man, denounced divorce and upheld the "sanctity of the hoe." Yes! Well, to those of us on the inside, the initiated, it was significant that the Steel Trust, of which Corey was head, spends not one cent in advertising with the newspapers. They had nothing to lose by telling the truth about Corey and his marital escapades. And had there been anything to lose, the interests