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
my acquaintance to whom I have mentioned the matter has admitted the
fact and deplored it.
In the same way, when Wanamaker’s was detected violating the customs
laws, only one Philadelphia newspaper reported the circumstances. There
was organized a league for honest advertising, and you might have
thought that such a league would have appealed to our highly moral
newspapers; but when this league prosecuted a merchant in New York for
selling furs under false names, not one newspaper mentioned the
circumstances. This merchant was convicted, and again not one New York
newspaper mentioned it. In Chicago various firms were prosecuted for
misbranding goods, and the local papers suppressed the news. In
Milwaukee four firms were prosecuted for selling a potted cheese doped
with chemicals, and the newspapers withheld the names of the firms. Says
Will Irwin: “I have never seen a story of a shop-lifting case in which
the name of the store was mentioned.” Also he makes the following
statement concerning the most august of the Brahmin newspapers of New
England:
The “Boston Evening Transcript” published in its issue of April 8th
the fact that a workman had fallen from a tree, that an aged pauper
had been found dead in bed, that the Harvard Shooting Club was about
to hold a meet, but not the fact that “Harvard Beer,” known to every
consumer of malt liquors in Massachusetts, was in peril of the law for
adulteration. Neither was the fact noted on Monday, April 10. But on
Tuesday, April 11, “Harvard Beer—1,000 pure” appeared in the pages of
the “Transcript”—as a half-page advertisement!
Every newspaper editor feels this pressure—even though he feels it only
in his imagination. A horse that travels in harness does so, not because
he likes to travel, but because he carries in his subconsciousness the
memory of the whip and the bit which “broke” him in the days of his wild
youth. And if, by any chance, he forgets this whip and bit, he is
quickly reminded. William Winter, a dramatic critic who had served the
“New York Tribune” for forty-four years, was forced to resign because
his reviews of plays injured the advertising business of the “Tribune.”
Certain managers were making money out of producing indecent plays; Mr.
Winter rebuked these plays, the advertisers protested to the “Tribune,”
and the managing editor of the “Tribune” censored Mr. Winter’s reviews.
During the controversy, Mr. Winter wrote to the managing editor that he
had desired to injure the business of the producers of indecent plays;
to which the managing editor replied; “My instructions with regard to
that page are that the articles are not to be framed with any such
purpose.”
The same thing happened to Walter Pritchard Eaton, dramatic critic of
the “New York Sun.” I learned of it just as my book was going to press,
and wired Mr. Eaton for the facts. Here is his answer:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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