"STRATFORD EVENING POST" TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1929. PRESS AND PARLIAMENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 73, 30 July 1929, Page 4

"STRATFORD EVENING POST" TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1929. PRESS AND PARLIAMENT.

I . | LAST week a question was raised in the House of Representatives in regard to the reporting lof Parliamentary speeches by party newspapers and allegations of unfairness were made by Government members. The instance quoted was one in which an important ministerial statement had been more or less ig- ; iiored. There have been other examples of the same kind, as for instance the failure of some of the Conservative newspapers to publish the now notorious 1 Vaile letter, and there lias been rather a pronounced tendency on the nart of certain of the Opposition newspapers to reduce their summaries of Ministerial speeches to the barest minimum. In fairness to these newspapers, however, we are bound to say that such instances are not neeessnrilv attributable to conscious nnrty bias. uewsrnrter in these davs deliberately risks its refutation for honesty or fairness by a policy of mi°rp. nresentation or snrtpression. The of newsnaners being human, their iudfment may be at fault, and in the pressure of too much news they mav apply the pruning knife unwisely. TSTrt two men precisely the srrcn e.sfirmf.a of th« vn.l"p of incidents or snppphes. The most that a ioumaljst cnn do. or ran lip p-vnect*"! to flo. is to present a f«ii T * and ppcurate summary of the day's news. The now universally accepted rule of newspaper conduct is that while the editorial columns are used for comment and for th<> exposition of the editorial policy, the new* columns know no party, and have ( no bi'in. "MVr-ibpvs 0 f n ]] nnrties j and all creeds have to , tho np-srs columns without dis- I crimination or distinction, and I ihv solp condition of admission' is that their news shall bo worth I mMiit.iiiff. A iournal conducted J "" ouv other Unps than flies" i" evitablv forfeits the confidence J of the public.