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
One day you read in the “Times” that the “Examiner” is dressing up
agents as soldiers, and circulating slanders against the “Times.” Next
day there begins in the “Examiner” a series of cartoons of Harry
Andrews, managing editor of the “Times,” representing him in grotesque
and disgusting positions. Next day you read in the “Times” that William
Bayard Hale, a former correspondent of the “Examiner,” is charged with
having taken German money. Next day you read in the “Examiner” that
Harry Carr, assistant managing editor of the “Times,” has been shown to
have had his travelling expenses in Germany paid by the German
government; also that Willard Huntington Wright, former literary editor
of the “Times,” is accused of having taken German money. Next day you
read in the “Examiner” that the mayor of Los Angeles has been indicted
upon a charge of taking bribe-money from negro brothel-keepers, and that
his chief confederate is Horace Karr, former political editor of the
“Times.” Next day you read in the “Times” about this same Horace
Karr—only he isn’t a former political editor of the “Times,” he is a
former reporter for the “Examiner”! This particular civic scandal is
spread over a page of both papers for a month, the “Examiner” playing it
up, the “Times” playing it down, both of them telling patent falsehoods,
and both of them continuing, day after day, to describe Horace Karr as a
former employe of the other!
One of the funniest instances of this rivalry occurred recently upon the
death of Mrs. Phoebe Hearst, mother of William Randolph Hearst, owner of
the “Examiner.” I made a study of the “Examiner” and the “Times” next
morning. The “Examiner” gave three columns on the first page and five
columns on the third page to accounts of Mrs. Hearst and her virtues.
There were two pictures, one a picture of Mrs. Hearst, occupying
fifty-eight square inches, and the other a picture of “the family of
William Randolph Hearst visiting their grandmother,” this occupying
forty square inches.
The “Times,” of course, was not so much interested in Mrs. Hearst. It
gave her only the amount of space which it would give to any California
millionaire who died—that is, two columns. The picture of Mrs. Hearst
occupied only twenty-four square inches, and the contrast with the
picture in the “Examiner” was most diverting. The picture in the
“Examiner” showed a magnificent and stately lady, some duchess by
Gainsborough. How the picture in the “Times” originated I do not know,
but it appeared as if the editor of the “Times” had said to his artist:
“Find me a picture of the ugliest old woman you have on file; or better
yet, get me a picture of a grim old man with a double chin, and draw me
a woman’s bonnet on top of him, and a woman’s dress over his shoulders,
and label it ‘Mrs. Phoebe Apperson Hearst’.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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