THE WORST NEWSPAPERS ON EARTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13453, 1 June 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE WORST NEWSPAPERS ON EARTH.

o ; '• YELLOW" PRESS CONDEMNED. No civilised country in the world has been ( content with newspapers so grossly con- j ( temptible as those which are read from New ( York to the Pacific Coast (declares Charles Whibley, in Blackwood's). The journals ■ known as Yellow would be a disgrace to the ' Black Republic, and it is difficult to under- ; stand the state of mind which can tolerate ; them. . . J j Divorced completely from the world of truth and intelligence, they present nothing . which an educated man would desire to read. ' As they are happily strange on our side ' of the ocean, they need some description. ' They are ill-printed, over-illustrated sheets, ' whose end and aim are to inflame a jaded '. or insensitive palate. They seem to addresa , the half-blind eye and the* sluggish mind of , the imbecile. , ■ Noble deeds make no scandal, and are : therefore not worth reporting. But if you can discover that the great man has a hidden - vice, or an eccentric. taste in boots or hats, there is "copv" ready to your hind. All tilings and all men must be reduced to a dead level of imbecility. The Yellow Press is not obsceneit has not the courage for that. It is merely personal and impertinent. r No one's life is secure from its spies. No privacy is sacred. Mr. Stead's famous ideal | of an ear at every keyhole is magnificently l realised in America. |, A hundred reporters are ready, at a mo- , mcntV notice, to invade houses, to uncover secrets, to molest honest citizens with in- , discreet questions. And if their victims are . unwilling to respond they pay for it with public insult and malicious invention. LOVE TRAGEDIES LAID BABE.. Now and again the editor takes his . readers into his confidence, and asks them : to interfere in the affairs of persons whom . they will never know. Here, tor instance, is a characteristic problem set by an editor whose knowledge of his public exceeds his [ respect for the decencies of life: "What Mrs. Washington ought to do. Her hus- , band Wall-street Broker. Got tired of Her and Deserted. But Mrs. Washington, who still loves him dearly, is determined to win him back. And here is the Advice of the Readers of this Journal." , Is it not monstrous— interference with the privacy of common citizens? And yet this specimen has an air of dignity compared with the grosser exploits of the hired eavesdropper. ' . _, Not long since there appeared in a Sunday paper a full list, with portraits and bio-j graphics, of all the ladies in New York who are habitual drunkards. In America trial by journalism has longsupplemented, and goes far to supplant, trial by jury. If a murder bo committed, its detection is not left to the officers of the police. . . A thousand reporters, cunning as monkeys, active as sleuthhounds, are on' the track. Whether it is the criminal that they pursue or an innocent man is indifferent to 4hem. of injustice, they .go in search of " copy." .. The style of the Yellow Journals is appropriate to their matter.. The headlines live on and by the historic present, and the text is as bald as a paper of statistics. It is the big type that does the execution. The " story" itself, to use the slang of the newspaper, is seldom either humorous or picturesque. Bare facts and vulgar incidents arc enough for the public, which cares as little for wit as for sane writing. One fact only can explain the imbecility of the Yellow Press: it is written for immigrants, who have but an imperfect knowledge of English, who prefer to see their I news rather than to read it, and who, if they must read, can best understand words of one syllable and sentences of no more than live' words. For good or evil, America lias the sole claim to the invention of the Yellow Press. It owes nothing to Europe, nothing to the traditions of its own country. - It grew out of nothing, and, let us hope, it will soon ],disappear into nothingness..