THE PESSIMISTIC CABLECRAMMER.

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 801, 5 November 1915, Page 8

THE PESSIMISTIC CABLECRAMMER.

A Word with the Press Association.

WE would ask the newspaper proprietors of this Dominon, whoconstitute the New Zealand* Press _ Association, how much longer they intend to tolerate the present most scandalous state of affairs in regard to the collection in London, and cabling out to this country, of the opinions of certain British newspapers ? It-: seems to us that, whoever is responsible. for the selection of news in London,. hasa; very inadequate idea of his duties and responsibilities. Day after day the public at this end have inflicted upon themthe pessimistic' croaki'ngs of such fif-teenth-rate, "footy" little papers as "Evening News" and "Evening Standard," papers whose opinions, on th©war or any other subject, the average well educated Englishman would laugh to scorn. These sheets are mere sensa— tion-mongering rags, which print "scarehead" articles, in edition after edition, with the sole idea of catching the stray* half-pennies of the people who rush to catch trains and trams. Why does not the Press Association' give us. the opinions of such really influential journals as the "DailyChronicle," the "Morning Post," and of such leading provincial papers as the Guardian, ,u "YorkshirePost,'' the ' 'Scotsman,'' the Birmingham and Liverpool journals?

It seems to us that the Association's agent in London picks out only - the sensational canards which the more ' de-cently-conducted journals disdain toprint. Then, again, why are "Times and Sydney Sun'' "specials" given such prominence in our daily press ? Have the newspaper proprietors and. editors of tliis country forgotten the mean trick played upon thepublic by the- "Daily Mail" at the time of the rumoured Pekin Massacre? Do> not these gentlemen know, and, if they do not know _ they should know, that Lord Northcliffe's papers "swap" warnews with the notorious Hearst group of papers, th© "New York American," and other pro-German sheets, which, ever since the war began, have been playing the dirty game of Bernsdorfian misrepresentation and mendacity ? And yet, day after day, the sensational rubbish of the "Daily Mail,'' the "Times," and other Northcliffian journals, is being spread before us by our daily papers. - *

We can assure the directors of tie Press Association that, there are. other important matters for them • to deal with when they meet in solemn conclave every year than settling "standard rates" for casual or standing advertisements. The public is grumbling loud and deep over the unpatriotic conduct of the Association in circulating all sorts of pessimistic rumours about the Allies atid_ their cause. If the Association is wise, it will set its house in order at once.