The Brass Check: A Study of American JournalismSinclair, Upton
General
The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism
Sinclair, Upton
Associated Press; Journalism -- United States; Press -- United States
There is one detail to be recorded about this particular action of the
news-channels. The United Press, which is a liberal organization, sent
out a perfectly truthful account of what had happened. The Associated
Press, which is a reactionary organization, sent out a false account,
stating that my wife had been arrested. My wife, knowing how this report
would shock her family and friends in the South, sent a special delivery
letter to the Associated Press calling their attention to the error, but
the Associated Press did not correct the error, nor did it reply to this
letter. My wife’s mother, an old-fashioned Southern lady, took the first
train out of Mississippi, to rescue her child from jail and from
disgrace; but by the time the good lady reached New York, she was so ill
with grief and shame that if her child had really been in jail she could
have rendered but little assistance. All she could do was to inform her
that even though she was not in jail, her father had disinherited her
after reading his morning paper. My wife was informed by lawyers that
she was in position to collect large damages from the Associated Press,
and from every newspaper which had printed the false report. Some thirty
suits were filed, but my wife’s health did not permit her to go on with
them.
We were taken to the Tombs prison, where the ladies sang the
Marseillaise, and I wrote a poem entitled “The Marseillaise in the
Tombs,” and again found it possible to have my poetry published in the
New York newspapers! The magistrate who tried us was an agreeable little
gentleman, who allowed us to talk without limit—the talk all being taken
down by the reporters. The charge against us read “using threatening,
abusive and insulting behavior.” The witnesses were the policemen, who
testified that my conduct had been “that of a perfect gentleman.”
Nevertheless we were found guilty, and fined three dollars, and refused
to pay the fine, and went back to the Tombs.
The newspapers tore me to pieces for my “clownish conduct,” but I
managed to keep cheerful, because I saw that they were publishing the
news about the Colorado coal-strike, which before they had banned from
their columns. The “New York World,” for example, published a sneering
editorial entitled, “Pink-tea Martyrdom.” “No genuine desire to effect a
reform actuates them, but only morbid craving for notoriety.” But at the
same time the “World” sent a special correspondent to the coal-fields,
and during the entire time of our demonstration and for a couple of
weeks thereafter they published every day from half a column to a column
of news about the strike.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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