DECADENT NEWSPAPERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 122, 21 November 1908, Page 13

DECADENT NEWSPAPERS.

The Spectator writes forcibly on a subject brought into prominence by the suicide of 'Major-General Luard. It says: — "We have spoken of this crime and its consequences as a comment upon our whole social system, and it is with deep regret that we recognise the part which has come to be played, not only in this case in particular, but in its general attitude towards publicity and crime, by a section of the press. It is, we fear, impossible to deny that the frame of mind which sends some irresponsilile meddler writing anonymous letters tocoroners is exactly the frame of mind to which this section of the press makes its chief appeal. The methods and the results are the same, except that the newspaper's opportunities are wider. "A lady is found ( murdered, in mysterious circumstances, in a lonely wood. Information roaches the offices of the London newspapers. By the next train there travels down to the scene an army of photographers, amateur delecttives, and special correspondents. The district is invaded ; tho country home is surlounded All respect for privacy is thrown to the winds. There is a rush to interview any neighbour or passer-by who could have had the slightest possible connection with the scene of the crime; the victim's friends and acquaintances are sought out and questioned; the servants are cross-examined, photographed, offered bribes. The zoom in which the coroner holds the inquest becomes a theatre. Special descriptions are telegraphed up to London ; all the writing is of evidence that is startling, of moments that are dramatic; the occasion becomes a play, rather than a scene of sorrow and silence. Even the churchyard is nr<t respected; the bereaved relatives walk to tho grave between rival photographers; the sheets of the next morning print pictures of mourning on which decency should have forbidden a man to look. Finally, when authority denies *ccejs to private letters, the contents of an imaginary communication are deliberately concocted; and, as if it were not enough to drive a bereaved English gentleman to insanity and suicide, words a»e put into the dead man's mouth which could have but one meaning, yet which, in fact, have not the remotest relation to anything he ever wrote or said. . "Nothing in the whole unhappy story is worse than the end, though, perhaps, it was an inevitable consequence of the beginning. From first to last it has been an exhibition of un-English methods of journalism, of which those who care for the traditions of an honourable calling cannot but be heartily ashamed. To take the lowost grounds of all, nothing is more striking in ihe rew methods than theii failure. The amateur detective, with all his clues, his theories, and his photography^ achieves no public service. All he does is to hinder the local police, baffle the professional detective, and so directly contribute to the successful escape of the criminal. When, in addition, he helps to drive an innocent man out of his mind, and to add to grief which is already overwhelming, the irony of the situation could not be more complete. "The public have no right to expect elaborate details of every accessory of the crime ; no right to demand dramatic descriptions of scenes at inquests and tiiais; no right to be provided with photogTaphs of places and persons (except for police purposes of identification) connected with the murder , no right to have c&meras pointed at mourners standing- by the side of a grave. Wo have travelled far in tho track of the worst forms of American journalism when it is ncctJHsury to write that last sentence. Need we travel further? "Let us grant this, to begin with : tha^ if a demand, not absolutoly illegal, can, be shown to exist, it will be supplied. . , If the public are really desirous of protecting- their pwn morals, they have tho remedy in their own hpnds. When a ,newepaj>er offends_ against decency and humanity, they will have nothing to do with it. We may deplore the fact that they should be compelled by English journalism to ask themselves questions with which journalism in other days did not perplex them_; but theirs, after all, is the final decision. They must 'choose and as they choose, so will the newspapers be written for them."