Page:The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 129.djvu/60

54 instrument of political propaganda by the party in power.

Another more fruitful suggestion is that of creating independent news-agencies at important centres, such as Washington, to send out unprejudiced reports and thus to serve as a check upon the established press associations and the regular Washington correspondents. Such agencies would, I fear, only irritate newspaper men if they attempted direct competition with the press associations. They might serve a useful purpose, however, if they confined themselves to indirect competition, serving, not newspapers, but magazines, business houses, and the like, somewhat as several statistical agencies now furnish data on business conditions to banks and other subscribers. The trained Washington correspondents of various periodicals now do excellent service in giving the public a view of the workings of the government rather different from that gained through the eyes of the press. And a privately controlled Washington news-agency, furnishing carefully prepared news from week to week, would be of use to individuals whose local newspapers have an inadequate Washington service, and yet who want to keep close track of government affairs, and also would tend to have a tonic effect upon the news-gathering organization of the press. It would challenge, not any single press association or single newspaper, but the whole profession. Nothing stimulates one to tell an accurate story so much as the knowledge that one’s hearer has an independent means of getting his information, and will pick one up if one goes far wrong.

Yet even such agencies would have only a limited value. They might be helpful in Washington or other critical points, but for the present we must remain dependent on the newspaper for our principal knowledge of what is going on all over the country and the world. And improvement of the newspaper profession must come about principally from within.

Criticism by the outside public there must be, however, — constant, watchful, and constructive, — accompanied by an increasing public appreciation of the dignity of journalism. In some quarters the obsolescent notion still prevails that reporters are impudent interlopers and busybodies. Thick-skinned reporters grow callous to such an attitude, but the thick-skinned are not always the most sensitive to accuracy. Ignorant and insolent as newspaper men sometimes are, their profession alone should be enough to command courteous treatment. It is useless to expect a high standard from men, unless the attitude of the community toward them contributes to their self-respect.

Meanwhile, it would be a good thing if all of us who read the newspapers — and that means pretty nearly everybody — knew enough about newspaper organization and methods to be better judges of the credibility of the news. I should like to see lectures on ’How to Read the Newspapers’ given in colleges and schools and elsewhere. It is as essenl ial for the citizen of t his day to be able to read the morning paper with a discriminating eye — to be able to distinguish the A.P. dispatch from the special correspondent’s forecast of conditions, and the fact story from the rumor story, and to be able to take into account the probable bias of the paper and make allowance for it — as it is for a lawyer to learn to assess the value of evidence. Only as we are able to estimate the relative amount of credence to be given to conflicting reports, and to judge for ourselves the reliability of the sources of the news, do we come somewhere near seeing that true picture of the world about us which we must see if we are to play our part in it intelligently and independently.