Page:The Washington Newspaper volume 6.djvu/65

 The Washington Newspaper

December, 1920

Dedicated to the Stady and Improvement of Journalism in Washington

“That's Just a Newspaper Story”

By MAURICE W. HICKLIN

Instructor in Journalism, University of Washington

Here is a story telling in simple language the efforts a newspaper makes to get its stories accurate. Editors may find it worth while to copy this story, in whole or in part, to explain how earnestly every paper strives to rid its columns of inaccuracies .-The Editor ,

" That's just a newspaper story.”

No doubt you have heard this statement before. Perhaps you may have made it yourself when you questioned the accuracy of a published story. Certainly, unless you are, or have been, a newspaper man or woman, you did not resent this statement when you heard it.

But if you had ever been a news paper man, you would know that if the story in question was inaccurate, it probably was so because some news paper man's information came from persons who had managed, innocently enough it may be, to twist the facts they were giving the reporter.

The fact that no two men see the same thing in the same way is the cause of much of a newspaper man's trouble. If a paper always could know when a piece of news was going to break, it could have a reporter on the spot, waiting. Once in awhile a reporter is fortunate enough to be on hand when a big story breaks. Those who read of the explosion in Wall Street will recall that an Associated Press man was passing at what we are fond of calling the psychological moment. In his own words, “ 1 dodged into a convenient doorway to escape falling glass and to reach a telephone and call the office." But this incident is mentioned only to show what might happen, but seldom does.

Charles Ross, Washington correspondent for The St. Louis Post Dispatch, has this to say: “Casual observation is nearly always faulty. Take for example the conflicting statements of persons on the witness stand. One man, telling his version of an automobile accident, swears the car was going fully thirty miles an hour. Another is certain the speed was only eight miles. One heard the driver sound a warning 'honk .' Another is equally positive no warn ing was given. Each witness is a reputable citizen and each thinks his version the truth. The discrepancy in their testimony is due, not to any effort to deceive, but to the common failure to observe carefully. It is the business of the newspaper man, whose eyes must serve thousands of readers each day, to see rightly what others see imperfectly or not at all.”

Persons who are not acquainted with a newspaper office may believe 57