THE DESCENT OF JOURNALISM.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 13706, 22 September 1908, Page 5

THE DESCENT OF JOURNALISM.

the tragic consequences of r-**s references to the murder of Mm Luard Sfyen Oaks, one recalls the late Lord Salisbury's caustic comment npon tirftendency "of the- modern newspaper. When one <£. the old-fashioned English jojna.s was jpstibtished last century, it pron «eJ that jit would be "written by gent!ea»en for &entJemen." establishment »>f the jAodern half-penny "shocker"" type >A paper provided the late Prime Minl-.Ur opportunity for a cynical pac»dy in tie remark that these journals it ore ;"to» by--office boys for office botr." -Unfortunately the public taste—in Fuglandfbt any rate—allows the "office 1-oy" styl«| to thrive and prosper while the other; class falls into financial raia. Even that-national institution, the "Times,* ua« passed out of the hands of the family under whose guidance it was more than . a- national force, into the control whicr.. ratesjseneationalism as the cardinal virtue of•• journalism. We feel cure that in the longirun the nation will pay dearly for the degradation of its Press-. The very character of the people will change with the character of what they read, and the old English virtues of justice and calmne» r-wiE give place to the tyranny of popular prejudice and hysteria, which were responsible for such crimes as the Dreyfus case/* If it .trere correct that General Luard had been the murderer of his wife, it is deplorable that the inexorable action of the law should be thrust aside *by •the detectives iof 'the modern Press. If he was innocent, it is terrible to think that'he was bounded to suicide? by the sensation-mongers who . have degraded, a profession to its present How unreliable and Ttnscruptflous tbeySare mar -be judged from Colonel Wazjp» bitter protest against the fabrication fAf a letter manufactured by the Preeji; and published as the composition of.hht dead friend. Such journalism is a- ctipnant„dinger to.-the. individual as weUj|s inlinenation. It cares nothing for ua reputation of the one, nor for the true "interests and welfare of the other.