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Show THE LIFE OF AN EDITOR An editor on a small town newspaper is the man who answers llic telephone, sometimes writes the personals and tlic pnrlias, the funeral notices and the news stories, reads proof, solicits the advertising, and when he has time writes : a few editorials. ! The edi lor sometimes has a hard life. When someone gels in trouble with the law and the editor prints the story I lint person gets mad because he does not want anybody to know about his trouble with the law. He never stops to think tha t it is the editor's duty to report and that he made the conditions himself which the editor reports. Then, there are other persons who do good and the editor recounts their activities for the benefit of the public as a good example and then the editor is in hot water because his well-meaning writing took the form of publishing something which an earnest ear-nest citizen did not wish to broadcast to the world. Of course, the editor had a good and sound motive in publishing the good deed but the modesty of the individual somethimes makes him critical of the editor for so publishing it. , Then, there are folks who get sick and if you publish their names in the sick list so that their friends will know where they are and be able to send them flowers, cards and pay them visits, these persons get mad because they don t like their sicknesses published in the newspapers. Then, there are others who are taken sick and go to hospitals and bcause their names are not published in the sick list so their friends will know about their illnesses they, get sore at the editor for not doing his duty, They don't stop to think that the editor has never been notified that they were sick by I members of the family and it is impossible for the, editor to keep up with the health of all persons in the community. Then, there are other persons who have company and I wonder why Mrs. Jones' visitors' names are in the paper but her visitors are overlooked. They feel like the editor has : something against them because he will not publish their ! news but they overlook the fact that they haven't ever bothered both-ered to call the newspaper office to let the editor know that they have had visitors. Then, there are other folks who never want their names in the paper and when they have visitors and the editor happens to get hold of the item and publishes it they rather resent the publicity because they do not like publicity on their personal activities. And, the same thing goes for parties, some persons get sore because the editor edi-tor doesn't have their parties publishd in his paper and others oth-ers get sore because their parties are published and it is revealed re-vealed to the world that they had a party and didn't invite everybody that they would like to have invitd. So, the editor edi-tor gets blamed either way. Then, there are other well-meaning persons who think that there are certain reforms which should be undertaken in the community and they come to the editor and want the editor to initiate the reform without regard for the fact that the editor may have a somewhat different opinion from their own, and overlooking entirely the additional fact that they have just as much civic duty to perform as the editor and should take care of their own reform movements. So they criticize the editor when he doesn't fall in with their plans to "tell Mr. Jones so-and-so about that obstacle in front of his door that I tripped over last night," yet they are afraid to mention the matter either to Mr. Jones or the police officers. offi-cers. They want the editor to take the responsibility and accept the blame. Then, there are other persons, when the editor embarks on some reform which he thinks is in the interest in-terest of the citizens generally, who jump up and get sore at him and cuss him out because they say he is trying to run the community and tell folks what they ought to do and what they ought not to do. Of course, the editor does sometimes some-times overstep the bounds like all folks who talk to the public, pub-lic, such as preachers and editors and leading politicians and statesmen, and attempts to tell the world too much of what it ought to do, and of course this is bad because the editor ought to realize that he has his limitations and his opinions are not always perfect. All in all, the editor who tries to do a good job of reporting re-porting the news, good and bad, in reporting the parties and social events of his community, in writing editorials which he thinks are constructive, finds himself in hot water from time to time. He is damned if he does and damned if he doesn t. |