" A PROSTITUTE PRESS." Truth

NZ Truth, Issue 56, 14 July 1906, Page 4

" A PROSTITUTE PRESS."

Truth

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CRICK'S CATEGORICAL CHARGES.

While a combination of circumstances, that have yet to be politically and judicially discussed and decided, have seemed to provide m Mr Ordck a scapegoat for his political, professional and personal enemies, Crick's charges against a section of the public press are sought to be carefully covered up under the cowardly cloak of a conspiracy of silence. But this must; not be permitted by the people, who have been too long bulldozed and 4 bamboozled, humbugged and hocussed by the plutocratic penny prints of this city. These "pure and patriotic organs of public opinion," as they are never tired of proclaiming themselves, pose as paragons of a disinterested public philanthropy, whereas they are commercial concerns, run for purposes of private pecuniary profit. To regard them m any other* light

would be to abdicate reason, to contradict experience, and to condemn commonsense. These papers print and publish what pleases the public and jiays their proprietors, who generally manage to make the pleasing of the public compatible with the promotion of their own private profit. Nothing that militates against their circulation, or that threatens to scare away advertisements, is permitted to appear m their columns. No party or policy that does not promise, to "be popular is supported or advocated by these "enlightened educators of public opinion." Pretending to lead, they invariably follow' ; and while placating public opinion by pandering to popular prejudice and passion they keep a careful eye on their circulation and . artfully angle far the people's pence and "fat" advertisements. # • • Conspicuous among this class of newspapers are the "Sydney Morning Herald" and the "Daily Telegraph," against which Crick's charges of commercial corruption and pecuniary prostitution were mainly, if not solely, directed. Of the first-named of these two papers, it may be -said that it is slightly less mercenary and mendacious than its. younger; morning; contemporary.. The "Herald," at, least, does make a show of keeping up a reputation for reliability m its news columns, and a pretence of a decent regard for the amenjities and veraci^ ties of honest journalism m its editorial columns. The "Herald" is a solemn, staid, stodgy sort of sneet, which has been successfully run as a purely family affair for fully hair a century. "Old Granny" has grown rich by being respectable. > In her Mother Grundy has found -a' most apt pupil m the imitation of her peculiar form of respectability. The pursuit of the pcudish proprieties has to the "Herald" proved the path to pecuniary fortune. By plausibly pandering to. the prejudices of a parvenu piutocracy, and craftily catering to contemptible foibles of society .coteries, cunningly cloaking the calico-jimmy crimes of commercial cliques, and condoning the corruption or •. pirate politicians, the "Herald" has come to.be the ideal paper of a boodling bourgeoisie, who prefer to plunder the people by prescription arid" Parliamentary process than by , the bolder and franker methods of highway robbery and piracy on the hlgn seas. Pecuniarily plethoric, "Granny", ie journalistically typical of tnose nichtally costive and morally constipated old women who, personally pure and physically ohaste, have a peculipj aversion to sexual prostitution, of which they are themselves , incapable, but who, 'nevertheless, jive luxuriousr. ly on the proceeds of prostitution received as revenues % from brothels. Such seems to be the moral role played by this sly, sanctimonious sheet m the journalistic sphere of this State: ':■ . ' . , ' Of the \ 'Daily 'Telegraph'," a. more brazen bawd neyar paraded for hire m the paths of journalism. Devoid of all decency, without a semblanoe of shame, this 'press prostitute, as Crick characterised it .jn the Assembly on Wednesday night, has proved itself to be the most treacherous and truculent, trull.-.., 0f ■ all' the ; common prostitute-papers -of ' the , * Commonwealth. Under cover of. Parliamentary! privilege, Crick declared that this strumpet Sheet can be bought by any politician or political party who is willing to bid high enough for her foul favors. He asseverated that he himself had done so ; that the Lync Ministry had done so ; that he and his Ministerial colleagues had bought tho public support of the "Daily Telegraph" by privately bribing with money bribes and Government billets tie principal proprietors and: members of the, editorial, staff of that paper. Crick further added that m return for billets and' boodle, he and his colleagues had been permitted to direct the policy of the "Telegraph"; they had submitted to them for revision articles all ready for publication ; that they, had altered the arj tides so submitted, so that when | published, the articles so altered bore a contrary meaning to that originally intended,,. and supported a policy which they were written to oppose, and "vice versa." Crick declared thai he had done this himself ; that members of the "Telegraph" staff had borrowed money of him, which they had never repaid; and that a dipsomaniacal drunkard of an editor, who, disappointed at not getting a billet promised him by the Lyne Government, turned on that Government and waa promptly sacked by the "pure and patriotic" proprietary of the "Telegraph"' for so aoing. This paragon print; which preaches about political purity and Parliamentary propriety, affects to be scandalised at the Land Scandals, cries aloud for tho blood of Crick, the, very man who declares that he and his Ministerial colleagues m the Lyne 'Administration bought its corrupt co-operation m public affairs of the State, just as x a. feculent fomicator would buy the foul favors of a putrid prostitute down a blind alley, under, cover of black night. ' ..■*■■ '.*.'■ • " This is the substance of what Crick said. Of course he said it m Parliament, under cover of privilege. Neither tfie "Herald" nor the "Telegraph" has had the courage to report Crick's cruel and categorical charges of bribery and corruption made against both of these pure and patriotic organs, these twin popular educators of public opinion. Crick's charges seem to have stricken them dumb. For months and months they have been publishing miles and miles of dreary, delirious diatribes agalnsf. this man Crick, damning him by dubious innuendo and maligning mm by malicious misrepresentations made under cover of a special and scandalous "Titus Oates" Act of Parliament, specially passed to protect periurers and shield slanderers from the legtl consequences of their own deliberate acts. The "Telegraph," with thai contemptible cowardice and ruffianly rancour which are conspicuous .' characteristics of the conduct of its; campaign against Crick, and m favor of public purity and Parliamentary^ propriety, has been bellowing for a^ blue moon for the blood of the man solemnly declares that it is a paper v which has been bribed, Ijoughw and sold, and whose prostitute embraces are at the call of the highest! bidder. This paper, which

publishes, daily, whole columns of accusations of corruption against Crick, has neither the courage nor candour to publish a single line of Crick's categorical charges of corruption against the "Telegraph," which he very properly stigmatises as a prostitute,, presuming that his charges, or a tithe of them, are true. • * • Are they true ? Silence is said to give consent to charges made against persons ; why not to charges made against papers? Will the "Telegraph" challenge an investigation of these charges, either before a Court of Law or m the High Court of Parliament ? If not, why not ? The proprietary of this pure and patriotic organ of public opinion, this popular political educator cannot forget that charges fully as serious and quite as categorical have been made outside Parliament, without the protection of privilege, by me, 1 m the columns of this paper, and the pure and patriotic proprietors of the "Telegraph" have not denied, • denounced or disproved them. I have denounced them as being no better than blackmailers ; I have charged them with having been bribed by the Lyne G-overnment to support the Protectionist policy of that Government. I now repeat those charges ; and challenge the pure and patriotic proprietors of this prostitute print to carry me before the courts and put me to the proof. This bawdy broadsheet is nothing better than a plutocratic pimp, , which, while .barracking for boodle, and accepting political bribes for corrupt journalistic support, attempts to blackmail "the legal profession and to bounce public bodies to become advertisers, to bully its country correspondents to send to Sydney "cooked."' reports, to make the Public Service Board its debt-collector among Civil servants, and m other ways to hold the community up to ransom. This same precious paragon of public purity, which wanted to snavel the public tramways of this State for a "Telegranh"-Lyne syndicate, now shrieks about Socialism and clamors for the, blood .-of Crick, the man who declares it to be a common press prostitute,, whose journalistic favors have been bought and sold, and are always at the command of the highest bidder ! ..'•••".■ • * Surely the silence of such 'strumous, ■ salacious' strumpet-sheets ca these, m the, face of Crick's categorical and consistent charges, willgive. the people of .this prostituto-press-ridden State serious pause, and cause .them to ask what is . the . " Telegraph's" latest little game. Is the motive of its damnably dastardly 'conduct towards Crick, who has vet" "to stand a second criminal trial, 'to be found m the fact that Crick is a Protectionist and, a Catholic ? Must the secret of this prostitute paper's malignity against a man yet to- be tiled 'for his political , life and civil liberty, be- found m the sink of Sectarian Savagery '?.' It looks like it. If it be so— if ibis be but a preliminary move m the coming Plutocratic-Anti-Labor-Federal campaign of Wriggler Reid— God help this State • and the Commonwealth, and: let us. pray that He will deliver us from the bloodhounds of bigotry and religious »flncoiir..' { ■ ■■-'■■. ' ! ' vJOH^ NORTON; Sydney, "June 30, i«) 06. ' "