THE BLOT IN FRENCH PAPERS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XV, 11 April 1896, Page 406

THE BLOT IN FRENCH PAPERS.

Every morning upon opening the papersin Paris you now find new arrests of journalists for blackmail and bribery. It has been found that all the Parisian papers employed black sheep, who, using the influence of publicity, filled their purses with dishonest gold. Rosenthal, alias Jacques St. Cere, of the Figaro, is now in prison, with a score of others from different papers, who are supposed guilty of blackmail and bribery in the unfortunate Lebaudy affair. It must be the system of conducting a paper that causes journalists to succumb to temptation as they do in Paris. To a great degree bribery and blackmailing must be the outgrowth of the French system of advertising. There is very little bona fide advertisement, as here, for instance, in pages reserved for that branch of publicity ; but there is much of it slipped in a treacherous way in the pages reserved for information, for literature and so composed as to deceive the reader. The French have passed muster in that art. Oftentimes it will be almost impossible to detect the deception, for the article will be full of interesting, instructive items, and oftentimes not even any names are mentioned. I remember some years ago an important paper failed to mention a play given by a young writer on the day after its first performance, and a couple of days after a most fulsome article appeared on the first page of the paper, so composed that no one would think but that the writer, who had signed his full name, was enchanted with the merits of the play. The mother of the author afterward showed me the receipted bill that that article had cost. A bill for 1,500 francs. ‘And did all of that go in the paper?’ I asked. ‘No, men who have influence with the public, who write in an amusing manner, and are sure 10 be read by every reader of the paper, get half of the cost of such articles, and the paper the other half.’ This system mnst have corrupting tendencies. A man who undertakes that kind of business will soon have no scruples to work unfaithfully to the authorities of the paper and pocket all the profits. The next step, when in sore need of money, is to sell his influence to anyone sufficiently void of principle to buy it. Then the last round of the ladder of journalistic infamy is blackmailing. So far, this class of men have been well under cover or sent away by their employers without exposure. But the Lebaudy scandal has thrown the flash-light upon them ana brought their manner of doing business to the public gaze.