Bad News Is Still News
A correspondent recently suggested that in this time of economic stringency we should not print all the bad news and should select the good news for prominent treatment It was depressing, he said, to read reports of falling wool prices, rising unemployment, and so on, every day. An advertiser telephoned this week to complain of “ scare headlines ” on our front page. Such headings were not good for business, he said; the newspapers could “ talk us into “a slump as they did in the 19305”. In case these views are widely held, it might not be out of place to state the principles which must guide newspapers in such circumstances—and which provided the basis for the answers we gave to these complainants. The correspondent who disliked reading depressing news had to be told that we do not make the news but have a clear responsibility to print the more significant and interesting items from the large “ file ” gathered daily by our own staff and the various news services we subscribe to. Different
assessments of the news value, or the relative importance, of the various items will necessarily be made by different journalists, however perceptive and experienced. They have to take into account many things—but the possibility or even the probability of an item’s being unpalatable is not one of them. We do not believe that our readers want unpleasant facts suppressed or disguised during an economic recession any more than they would wish the news of reverses in war to be withheld or played down.
Like any other newspaper which takes a serious and responsible view of its duty to inform the public, “The Press” will do its best to give the news of the day, bad as well as good, and to make a sober assessment of both. This is a time when everyone should know the facts; an easy optimism founded on ignorance is not likely to call forth either the effort or the self-discipline that will be needed if this country is to surmount its troubles.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31378, 25 May 1967, Page 12
Word Count
343Bad News Is Still News Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31378, 25 May 1967, Page 12
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