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
We read about such infamies in Europe, and shudder at them, and
congratulate ourselves that our “sweet land of liberty” is more clean.
But put yourself in the place of an educated Mexican, and see how it
appears to him. American financial promoters bring their wealth to
Mexico, and buy the Mexican government, and obtain ownership of the most
valuable land and oil and minerals of the country. The Mexican people
overthrow this corrupt government, and attempt to tax these legally
stolen properties; but the foreign governments say that these properties
may not be taxed, and the newspapers owned and published by these
foreign interests carry on for years an elaborate campaign of slanders
against Mexico, to the end that the American people may make war upon
the Mexican people and exploit them. And this is done, not merely by the
Otis paper and the Hearst papers, which all thinking people know to be
corrupt; it is done by papers like the “New York Times” and “Tribune”
and “Chicago Tribune,” which are considered to be entirely respectable.
As I write, the correspondent of the “New York Tribune” in Mexico, L. J.
de Bekker, resigns, and states as his reason that his dispatches were
suppressed or cut in the “Tribune” office.
And of course, in a campaign of this sort they count upon the cordial
help of the Associated Press. Says the “Heraldo de Mexico,” August 15,
1919: “We see that the Associated Press lies with frequency.” And you do
not have to take this solely on the word of a Mexican newspaper. The
Mexican minister of foreign relations gives out a letter from the
vice-president of the Mexican Northwestern Railroad, whose offices are
in Toronto, Canada: “I see that the Associated Press mentions with
frequency, in its reports, the name of our company.” He goes on to
explain that the Associated Press has stated that his company complains
of the confiscation of lands, whereas these reports are wholly false;
his company has had no difficulty whatever with the Mexican government.
He says: “It is intolerable that our name should be used.” And also the
Associated Press sends out a circumstantial story of the alleged
withdrawal of the Canadian Pearson’s from business in Mexico. The
vice-president of this company issues a point-blank denial that he has
had any difficulty with the Mexican government. Says Mr. de Bekker,
protesting to the assistant manager of the Associated Press: “It is a
most marked example of the A. P.’s unfairness. And it is a fair
presumption that the A. P. will not carry this denial.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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