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
He uses much perfume, and is extremely conceited. He is author of the
remark that no reporter is worth more than twenty dollars a week, or
ever will be. He is a secret laugh-producer because of his inordinate
love for the camera spotlight. Strangely enough, his likeness is
seldom to be found in any paper except his own; the “Chronicle’s”
camera men have standing instructions at public gatherings to pay as
little attention to other men as possible and to concentrate on de
Young. On his own paper everybody is Jones or Smith except himself. He
must always be referred to as Mr. de Young. Owner of much valuable
real estate near Golden Gate park, he made a vigorous fight to have
the Panama-Pacific Exposition located in the park, hoping thereby to
increase the value of his holdings. Defeated, he turned his wrath on
the exposition officials, and denounces them at every opportunity.
Mention of President C. C. Moore of the Exposition Company is
forbidden in the columns of the “Chronicle.”
There are differences, of course, in the moral character of men. There
are some men who do not take part in large-scale real-estate intrigues,
and some who do not live with opera-singers; there are capitalists who
pay their debts, and regard their word of honor as their bond. And there
have been newspapers owned by such men, and conducted according to such
principles. You could not buy the editorial support of the “Springfield
Republican” or the “Baltimore Sun”; you could not buy the advertising
space of these papers for the cheaper and more obvious kinds of fraud.
But ask yourself this question: Is there a newspaper in America which
will print news unfavorable to department-stores? If the girl-slaves of
the local department-store go on strike, will the newspaper maintain
their right to picket? Will it even print the truth about what they do
and say?
Some years ago a one-time teacher of mine was killed by falling down the
elevator-shaft of a New York department-store. I noted that my newspaper
did not give the name of the department-store. As a matter of curiosity,
I bought all the newspapers, and discovered that none of them gave the
name of the department-store. It was not absolutely essential, of
course; my one-time teacher was just as dead as if the name of the store
had been given. But suppose the accident had taken place at the People’s
House, owned by the Socialists—would all the newspapers of New York have
withheld the name of the place?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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