The Hastings Standard Published Daily. FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1897. JOURNALISTS AS POLITICIANS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 263, 5 March 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1897. JOURNALISTS AS POLITICIANS.

For the cause, that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance. And the good that we can do.

" Hi: is a grumbler, acensttrer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, and a tutor of nations," such was Napoleon's definition of a journalist, it is a strange mixture of virtues, but viewed from the standpoint of pulilij duty, a journalist must possess all these and many more besides. There are good journalists and bad ones, as there are good and bad in all profes--ions and callings, but take the newspaper men of the I Iri t i-li Umpire on the whole they will compare favorably with any other class of men. The true journalist will never seek to protrude bis identity, to parade his per sonality, to advertise himself. It is essential that he should be bidden from the public view liehind the imJM tu trable hedge which is formed of the impersonal " we." The best journalists in Knglandand the coionies are those who least appear before the public. It is a personal sacrifice, an obliteration of self in the public interest. What journalist ever gets credit for his work ? And what true journalist ever sought the appri lution of lti< crowd ?It is not his nt'sston to bask iti the sunshine of i«q i'tr ip plattse, but it is hts dutv and his (>milege t<» lv-irk ana tinknown. For the ("tills. th-l'. lacks iisNiititfici*, Fur the t!:-it Ui-f-d : For tlie fitUm ni 1 !:•- dist.uae. AiiJ the £<,** l iLd-i vnw tun Jo.

It is this silent but meritorious work that has won for the newspaper its power. The power of the Press is happily expressed in the lines of Bowring. Mightiest of the mighty means, On which the arm of progress leans, Man's noblest mission to advance, His woes assuage, his weal enchance, His rights enforce, his wrongs redress, Mightiest of mighty is the Press. The saddest of all sad spectacles is to see a useful journalist yearn after the flesh pots of politics. Once the journalist is merged in the political! he ceases to be of value to the public. He loses his lustre, his power, his greatness,and becomes a sordid gamgler in politics. There is a vast difference between journalism and politics. The true journalist must ever be for right and progress, and the successful politician is the creature of circumstances. He must gamble with right and wrong, with justice and morality, for party gains, and he becomes a great personage in proportion to the success of his gambling. But apart from this aspect of the matter, a journalist who becomes a politician is invariably a failure. In our colonial history with a few exceptions our journalist politicians have been failures. In the past the political arena has claimed from journalism its master men. The proprietors of newspapers only have ventured into the sea of politics, but now the journeyman journalists seek the same turbulent and murky waters, and if the public are not watchful much harm will result from the innovation. The newspapers will become tainted with the rottenness of politics. It has been bad enough with newspaper proprietors in Parliament it will be many degrees worse with journeyman journalists in the House. With very few exceptions the political leading articles, which unfortunately are the staple products of New Zealand writers, are steeped in a strong solution of bias before they are given to the public. The independent, fair-minded, truth-loving, political leader writer is a rarity in New Zealand and the continued coqueting of journalists with active politics will tend to sap the power and destroy the usefulness of the newspaper. Even now it is questionable whether the opinions of "we" carry much weight, and certainly they carry less weight and have less influence with the people than was the case some ten or fifteen years ago. The journeyman journalist who aspires for Parliamentary honors, suits the mordant sarcasm of Prince Bismarck. " A journalist, a man who has mistaken his calling." Indeed it would be not ungenerous to say of such a one, that he is not unlike Judas whose mercenary exploits have earned for him undying notoriety. There can be nothing said against the man who forsakes journalism for politics, we can only pity his degraded taste, but the man who would prostitute a great and honorable profession to further his political prospects is a despicable creature. If the people studied their own interests they would treat the journalist politicians as social lepers.