AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 698, 24 December 1909, Page 15

AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS.

The' janedcapisation ol the British newspaper is a favourite theme whenever . auy detail of; simplification or .'elucidatioii-jjs at: tempted here, and it may bo admitted at least ' : • tiiat some civilised Americans do not' think very well of their newspapers.: Mr. J. K. t "Rogers has just published with Mr, Fisher . Unwin,a book on "Tho American Nowspapor," and he should know something of. his subject, . for ho tells us that lie has examined soma 15,000 out of the 25,000 different papers that/ •exist in tho United States, Mr.' Ehodos, liko • ■othor observers; has a' good'word to:say for tho ■:■■■■, country newspapers, but tho predominating influenco is in tho towns, and especially in ;• > Now York, 110 draws a distinction betweon the yellow press and tho more usual and ropresentative sensational press, but the formidablo charges that he makes apply in different do-v groes to both. The' Custom of falsifying noire, « it is said; has gone to deplorable lengths, and - v •: good citizens: are kept out of public life 1 by,, the fear of rockl'ess or interested abuse. Then there aro, in degrees which we can hardly > realise without, oxperiencei tho- control by in- ■ terested. parties, the, oontrol;'by advertisers, / ■< tho suppression of news, the eggriegious comit supplement, the wallowing in details of crime: ■ From tho first: page of many newspapers, it is said, anyono unfamiliar with the custom- . ary'degree of'emphasis might condudo that ' society is on tho verge'of anarchy. , Mr. Itog-; crs suggests; that the American papers by fals« ; statemont and . cynical' criticism' are deludingtho bulk of the American peoplo as to tho •• existing standards of citiMnsnip and national ■: life, but he fairly quotes the opinions of thosa J ■ who do. not perfectly agree with him. Many years ago Mr. Whitelaw Beid said that there was not a newspaper in New York that was not better th&n its audience, and Mr. Bogorp . has ovon found, in thj) reporter of ft yollow journal, a defendor of yellow journalism. > It:*'-; y was not contended that this is "nice,"" but that it does'get down to something lower than ' itself and_ that "it is ( bettor .to raise a wholo ■ city ono inch than to hoist a few men ' - ? women ten feet in v the air." And there it another great function of the American news- . . . ■ paper' which in somo rough fashion it doos ■ :; fulfil. Tlie United Stat'? have a .vast alien 1 i.. population, much of which is' at a low lovtsl of intelligence, and this great mass must be ; • assimilated into tho American ■ people. "To a much greater oxtent than the school, tho - : newspaper is the agent of •assimilation j it is v ,tlle. press that'makes Americans out of this vast army of foreign immigrants." Of course 1 'v. Mr: ltogors pays his tribute of respect to tho:'. • minority of admirable, nowspapers, and ■ho : v.v might have mentioned tho business papers/ ' ' sovoral of which aio of excellent quality. His ' general: conclusions is , the .obvious ono that' tho American press, "is . a reflex of the nation : ■ rather than a leader of it". Indeed, he asks whether , tho pamphlet will not. havo. to bo revived as a medium for heretical, ideas whiUt tho newspapers.' in each groat town, however " bitterly tlioy may opposo ono: another, con- . ' stituto what.is practically an-exclusive Trust !l .n. < that would mnko short work of any interloper.- . : i English' paper.