| Show BOUGHT PAPERS FAR IN THE MINORITY 6 it it were possible for some man of unimagined wealth to purchase own control and dictate the policy of every newspaper 1 th the united states he be would be dictator of the united states ibe could elect whom he pleased he could control legislation by controlling the legislators he could tax as ho be pleased by controlling the taxing bodies he ile could make war declare peace amend the constitution his power would be absolute for this co country u t I 1 governed I 1 1 by public opinion and public opinion is almost entirely in the hands of the newspaper with this in mind the words uttered by oswald garrison villard editor and owner of the nation should be published far and wide and given serious thought by all who read newspapers which means practically all adults in this country mr villard charges that the newspaper has become a money making institution rather than the carrier of an editorial message aag e that its main function is to pay dividends rather than to present resent the truth that the great papers frequently frequent ly take sides and pd deny any the other side the chance chanco to toll tell its story and that they are for all their cleverness used far too much by various interests to publish paid for propaganda for this that and the other special interest we can a all see some examples of newspaper unfairness there arc are papers which will print no masonic news prominently there are journals which minimize every aati activity vity of the catholic church there are papers in which a jew can not get his name and those in which a gentile is never handled gently there are republican papers who can not tell the truth about democrats and democratic papers which never tell the facts about republicans but bu so eo far the biased papers balance each other and no man is is compelled to read only one paper but the real bulwark against newspaper dictatorship is S the small emall paper the country sheet the final town daily and und it should be a matter of pride to all such as well as to their readers that while of the larger city papers the truly fair minded and honest sheets sheetz are in the minority the acack reverse is true among most of the eighteen thousand smaller journals 3 of the nation |
