Truth DAMNABLE DOMINATION.

NZ Truth, Issue 123, 26 October 1907, Page 4

Truth

DAMNABLE DOMINATION.

Published every Saturday Morning at Luke's Lane (off Mannersstreet), Wellington, N.Z. SUBSCRIPTION (IN ADVANCE), 13S, PER ANNUM. SATUBDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1907.

Tke Press Association ia this Dominion is a sort of capitalistic combine that effects to make a corner ia news, and practically has most papers m New Zealand under its plutocratic thumb. It just what news it thinks the people are entitled to. and, moreover, the press of the colon v. which is under the thumb of this inkslinsin.cr, news-providing Trust, is afraid to utter any protest for fear the Trust will cut off supplies, and thus put the suppressed press to the extraordinarily large expense of employing correspondents m the various centres of the Dominion and m Australia. To do this, even with the big dividend-paying dailies is a matter next door to impossible. The Press Association\ therefore, being lop-dog, purveys what penny paper pabulum the bosses, political and oth•l'Wise, think desirable, and the twn-

seauence is thajfc the public who pay are the chief sufferers. Now, "Truth" of ail newspapers m Maoriland is the only one of any importance, ami wielding as it; does such a*n influence lor good that can do, is doing, and will do, without the assistance of any pampered-up, capitalistic controlled, news-providing association, for the simple reason that so where one may i» New Zealand or Australia, there will "Truth" be found . and where "Truth" is found, so also will there be • found a journalistic staff whose noses are just as keen •on the scent; of news as any one of the myrmidons of a Press • Association, and it is, moreover, something worth boasting over that at various times whenever there have been any journalistic coups effected, "Truth" has notbeen behind-kand. Gladly,, no doubt, and only for the sake of what profit would accrue, the Press Association would supply "Truth" with the "latest news," but, fortunately, this paper is so situated that it can afford to act independently of the Trust, aad if necessity arose, "could tell it politely, or otherwise,: to go to the devil with its often . stale news. These few remarks, egotistical as they may appear, are, : however, only a sort of preliminary canter to the protest which must sooner or later be emphatically uttered against the damnable domination of this puerile Press which starves the New Zealand daily press and through it, the public, of news that the public have every right to. This Press ring must be broken, and the sooner the respectable daily press of New Zealand combine and bump up good and hard against this rotten monopoly and give the public fuller information on Australian and Old World affairs, the greater will He the benefits to fojoth press and people.

We have heard a great deal of the reduction m cable rates. We have been informed by Premier- Ward that such . a reduction would mean the spreading of news and intelligence and would be the means of bringing the people of the two Antipodes m closer touch with each other. All this might be accomplished by cheaper cable rates, but is the proposal for such reductions intended, to bestow any such boon on the people of New Zealand ? "Truth," at anyrate, doubts it. Any such reduction would be a sop to the plutish Press Association, which is forever playing into" the hands of the capitalistic crowd. The Press Association cables are cooked at either end. They are made to serve the interests of Mammon ; those of the people,, the,democracy, are shamefully and sadly neglected. Hence it is that, per cable, we heard only one side, the capitaltic side, of the Belfast strikes. Hence, also, we are hearing only the wretched version of the capitalist in ' the threatened railway strike m Great Britain. Would any concession m cable rates make any material, difference m the quality of news supplied by the. Press Association ? No, quite the contrary. The profits would be increased ten-fold. With greater facilities for cooking cablegrams New Zealand would be stuffed with wretched misrepresentations of things, as they are m Great Britain, America, and the world generally. The Press Association being hand-in-glove with Fat, would only give what the Capitalistic crowd at its back would dictate and thus leave to "Truth" and such papers the onerous and honorable task of giving from English f les, a couple of months old, the true and correct version of affairs. That such has been the case is signally proved by the fact that the lying cable can^ds of the Press Association concerning the Belfast strike, the trial of Haywood, the American Labor Unionist, and numerous other matters, have been exposed by "Truth" when English and lAmerican files have been referred to. More than this can be said. On the occasion of the pugilistic encounters between the Australian, Squires, and the Americans, Burns and Sullivan, there were thousands m New Zealand who were greatly interested m the results. Not a word of these contests filtered through the • agency of the Press Association, though the Australian daily press had lengthy reports. Why is this thus •? It means only that the Press Association reserves to itself the right of supplying what news it thinks fit the people should have. No matter what the demands of the public may be, this cormorantic body . practically dictates its own terms to the daily press which m its turn humbly submits, and thus practically tells the public to be damned. . * - * ■ ' • It is a matter of common knowledge m press circles throughout New Zealand that on the occasion of the "All Black's" famous and triumphal tour of Great Britain, the Press Association saw fit to send through just what it pleased of the footballers' progress. So, miserably meagre, so skinflint was the cable news concerning * the ruggers that a protest was made by " the daily press, and the result was that the people m the colony', got fuller reports. Had it toeen left to the Press Association the people could have gone to hell for all /it cared. . When the newspaper proprietors bucked up against the Trust, it caved m, and the result was the people got what they paid for. Now there is another. "All Black" team touring Britain, and "Truth" ventures the assertion that the people of this country are just as much interested, if not more so, m the doings and doughty deeds of the' professionals as they were m the amateur "All Blacks." And once again do we see the Press Association ' m its' true colors. The bare results are cabled through. That and nothing more. If it dare, and the Press Ass: must draw a limit to the starvation policy, it would ignore these footballers altogether. And why ? Because they are professionals. It might just as well be mentioned here that the football this time is confined to the English Northern counties, with which New Zealand principally trades. AH our wool and most of New Zealand's frozen meat finds a ready market m these counties. New Zealand has, therefore, more to gain by being m closer touch with these great commercial and industrial centres With the rest of the United Kingdom. If the amateur "All Blacks" tour was calculated to draw tighter the tics of kinship, how much more likely is the teui; (it ihd "puos A " m ttie North-

ern counties to foster and engender trade. What is sauce for one goose is surely sauce for another. At anyrate. the people of New Zealand, being as greatly interested m the doings of the "Professional All Blacks" as they were m the "amateurs," it stands to reason that the Press Association should give fuller and more reliable accounts of the matches. But there is another thing to consider. This football team is professional ; they are tainted , they are under the ban of the-N.Z.R.U., which, by the success of the professionals have everything to lose. Why the fact that 'the team is a professional one should so influence the Press Association as to actually suppress news of their doings is beyond human ken. It will suit the ,N.Z.R.U., naturally, but then the N.Z.R.U. is not the public of this country. Why the Press Association should take upon itself the responsibility of denying information that the public want and look to the daily press to supply is • one of the enigmas that can only be solved by the Press Association being made to understand that its ring of iron can be broken. What the devil • does it matter to the Press Association whether the footballers are pros, or amateurs ? The public do not care, so why should this monopoly ? The Press Association just now have the. whip hand. -Nevertheless, it is just and only fitting that a little light should be shed on its damrnable policy of starving the public. No newspaper has the privilege of declaring what news the people shall read, and of what they shall forever be kept m darkness of. The keep-it-dark policy of the daily press of New Zealand has m a great measure contributed to "Truth's" success. Being independent of the Trust, neither fearing or respecting it, we feel at liberty to express our feelings concerning it and^its methods. It has the press, practically speaking, under its thumb, and it is time the press relieved itself of the shackles. The press of New Zealand is not independent so long as the Press Association forces it to publish what it prefers to give, and until the press revolts against this damnable domination so long will the people of New Zealand be kept m darkness of events that they should thoroughly understand.