Page:Herr Glessner Creel - Tricks of the Press (1911).djvu/8

 under heating, or lack of safety appliances on the street cars. Mind you, now, everything a reporter writes is read three times before it goes into the paper. It is read first by a copy reader, next by a proof reader and again by the managing editor. If it passes these three people it goes into the paper.

This cub's story comes to the managing editor. He is in touch with the publisher. He knows the publisher does not wish such a story in the columns. So he promptly lays it aside. And at the close of that day's business he calls this young cub to his desk and tells him, as gently as possible, "In the future put the soft pedal on traction stories. We can't use 'em. The old man's in it." That's a frequent remark in a newspaper office, "The old man's in this thing." After a few experiences of this sort the cub begins to understand. And the "truth" to him comes to mean: "Those things which do not conflict with the business interests back of my newspaper." He becomes a mental reflection of the economic interests with which his paper is identified. And yet he's hired to tell the truth!

On the old "Chicago Chronicle," every copy reader's desk contained a list of twenty-two corporations regarding which nothing derogatory could appear in that paper. The publisher of the "Chronicle," John R. Walsh, was sentenced to Leavenworth prison. He was interested in each of these corporations. Among them were three banks. He wrecked those banks. You remember that the crash swept away the savings of thousands of small depositors, though the clearing house association afterward made good the amount to all who were caught in the crash. The banks accepted money after those on the inside knew they were insolvent. But the "Chronicle" was silent. Yet you know that John R. Walsh, publisher, knew what John R. Walsh, banker, was doing. Practically every man on the Walsh paper knew that the crash was impending. But that was the "truth" to none of them. It was a business interest back of the paper. It applies to a greater or lesser degree on all newspapers. Remember this