Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/472

 the average

editor will work for the average reader. He cannot be any more in- dependent of the man who buys his goods than the manufacturer or merchant can be. A manufacturer who refuses to produce things that the people want, because he thinks they ought to want something better, will be driven out of business, and so will a newspaper editor. People sometimes talk of "yellow journalism" as if the editors of the yellow journals were solely responsible for their existence. They are responsible to some degree; but to a still larger degree the responsibility lies with the public that will buy and read their news.

Other college presidents share this same view. While presi- dent of the University of Minnesota, George Edward Vincent declared:

The press is more than a business. It is a social service fundamental to the national life, exerting profound influence upon it. The men of the press must recognize the social nature of their task. If the press be a corporation, it is a public service corporation with all of the social responsibility that this implies. The American press reflects the life of all of us, and it affects the life of all of us. We must all share the com- mon task of raising slowly, steadily, courageously this life to a higher level of truth, of justice, of good will. We, the people, make the press what it is. The press can help us to make it and all our national in- stitutions more nearly what they should be.

Those who maintain that the newspaper has outgrown the looking-glass stage, and should be developed along lines of community interest, overlook the fact that the paper which devotes its energies to community welfare is but reflecting the trend of the times. The old-fashioned church, open only on Sun- day, has in many communities become the institutional church which not only preaches, but also practices the ideals of its Founder. The American university is taking the torch of learn- ing from its academic seal and using it to light its halls at night for the instruction of those unable either on account of the time or money to take the regular course.

SUPPRESSION OF NEWS

The charge most often brought against the newspaper to-day is that it suppresses news because it fears certain powerful ad- vertisers. This charge is quite different from that of giving free publicity to advertisers in the news columns. Oswald Garrison