The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism — John Shaqi
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
Some very brilliant articles have been sent us about the unhygienic
methods of the Beef Trust. In order not to run any risk of wronging
that organization we engaged Major Seaman to go to Chicago, and his
first report will appear next week.
So, you see, they were going to give an illustration of editorial
fairness, of scrupulous regard for exact truth; and having thus prepared
their readers, on April 22, 1905, they presented their material—a long
article by Major Seaman, praising the Chicago Stockyards, and pretending
to refute all my charges. At the same time they published only three
paragraphs of my charges—the great bulk of my articles they left
unpublished! They gave their readers a few paragraphs from the “London
Lancet,” but so far as concerned me, the readers got only the answers of
Major Seaman, and an introductory editorial condemnation of me,
explaining that I had submitted my articles to the editors, and they,
“desirous of securing the unexaggerated facts,” had sent Major Seaman to
Chicago, and now gave his findings.
And this not being enough, they added a discussion of the matter on
their editorial page. This editorial they headed, “Sensationalism”; and
they subtly phrased it to give the impression that the paragraphs they
were publishing constituted all I had to say: “Mr. Sinclair’s article,
published alone, would have produced much more of a sensation than it
will produce as mitigated, by the report of Major Seaman.... Having some
doubt, however, about the real facts, we induced Major Seaman to make
the trip to Chicago. This incident will serve as an example of the
policy mapped out for the conduct of this paper.”
How dignified and impressive! And how utterly and unspeakably knavish!
And when I wrote to them and protested, they evaded. When I demanded
that they publish my entire article, they refused. When I demanded that
they publish my letter of protest, they refused that. And this was done
by Norman Hapgood, who posed as a liberal, a lover of justice; a man who
spent his editorial time balancing like a tight-rope walker on the
narrow thread of truth, occupying himself like a mediaeval schoolman
with finding the precise mathematical or metaphysical dead centre
between the contending forces of conservatism and radicalism. A friend
of mine talked with him about his treatment of me and reported him as
saying, with a smile: “We backed the wrong horse.” The truth was, he had
backed the horse of gold, the horse that came to his office loaded down
with full-page advertisements of packing-house products.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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