Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of EthicsDrake, Durant
Philosophy
Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of Ethics
Drake, Durant
Ethics
(2) No less reprehensible, though somewhat less important, is the
toadying of the newspapers to their advertisers. The average paper
could not exist were it not for this source of income, and it cannot
afford to refuse the big advertisements even when they are pernicious
to the morals or health of the community. So we are confronted daily
by the premedicine fakirs, who injure the health and drain the
pocketbooks of the guileless. So we are exposed to the plausible
suggestions of the swindlers, feasted with glowing prospectuses of
mines that will never yield a dividend, or eulogistic descriptions
of house lots to be sacrificed at a price that is really double their
worth. In a recent postal raid the financial frauds exposed had fleeced
the public of nearly eighty million dollars, about a third of which
had been spent in advertising.
Not only do the newspapers accept such advertisements, and those of
the brewers, the cigarette-makers, and the proprietors of vile theaters,
but they do not dare in their columns to denounce these frauds or
undesirable trades. They are muzzled because they cannot afford to
tell the truth when it will offend those who supply their revenue.
(3) Less harmful, but more superficially conspicuous, is the tendency
toward the fabrication of imaginary news, to attract attention and
sell the paper. Huge headlines announce some exciting event, which
below is inconspicuously acknowledged to be but a rumor. It will be
denied the next day in an obscure corner, while the front page is devoted
to some new sensation. This "yellow journalism" is very irritating
to one who cares more for facts than for thrills; and the more reputable
newspapers have stood out against this disgraceful habit of their less
scrupulous rivals. Mr. Pulitzer, the son of the famous editor of the
New York "World," in an address at the opening of the Columbia
University School of Journalism, spoke vehemently against this evil:
"The newspaper which sells the public deliberate fakes instead of facts
is selling adulterated goods just as surely as does the rascal who
puts salicylic acid in canned meats or arsenical coloring in preserves;
and it ought to be subject to the same penalties for adulteration as
are these other adulterators. The fakir is a liar if he is guilty of
a fake that injures people, he is not only a vicious liar but often
a moral assassin as well; but in either event he is a liar, and it
is only by treating him uncompromisingly as such that he may be corrected
if he is not yet a confirmed fakir, or rooted out if he is an inveterate
fakir." There is surely enough, for those who have eyes to see, that
is dramatic and exciting in actual life without depending upon fictitious
news. Chesterton berates the contemporary press for failing to give
us the thrill of reality. It "offends as being not sensational or violent
enough; . . . does not merely fail to exaggerate life-it positively
underrates it. With the whole world full of big and dubious
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