The Wanganui Chronicle MONDAY, MARCH 6, 1939. THE PRESS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 54, 6 March 1939, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle MONDAY, MARCH 6, 1939. THE PRESS

COMMENTING editorially the Standard declares as follows: “Both Sir Henry Horton and Sir Cecil Leys have been at some pains to explain away the sins of the Press. During the week just passed they have extolled the virtues of the daily newspapers and informed their readers that the Press has been maligned. The Press, they have explained, is doing a good job of work for the public good. “What is really interesting about their defence of the daily newspapers is the fact that they have found it necessary to defend them.’’ This is hardly complimentary to the Labour Party, the cause of which the Standard desires to further, for if the frequent assailings of the Press by Labour politicians means so little that they merit no reply it is hardly wise of the Standard to admit the fact. The Standard does not, however, meet the real point, which is that the daily Press has been giving an undue amount of publicity to Ministerial statements, and not content with this the Ministers bombard the Press with propaganda articles, too much of which is accommodated. Vet despite this generous treatment of Labour Party statements the Press is attacked in a most ungracious manner. The Standard concludes by saying that, "The public to-day can see through and evaluate propaganda even in daily newspapers.” It is to be hoped that this is true, because the public is being fed with more propaganda to-day than ever in the, history of the Dominion, but if it can evaluate it correctly—and it is to be hoped that it can—there is still hope of a return to political sanity. The Labour Party is making strenuous efforts to launch a daily newspaper of its own and it is to be hoped that it will find means of achieving that end. With a Labour Party in the field, expected to accommodate all the propaganda let loose by the members of the Labour Party, it will be interesting to watch its efforts to play fair with its opponents.