| OCR Text |
Show SURPRESSING NEWS. No newspaper points all the news, No newspaper would do so even if it were possible. The publication' may etideavor to establish a reputation lor proceeding without fear or favor, but quite frequently the editor is m much concerned with what to pi int. Editor; are judicious parsons selected larjj.' ly for their knowledge of news values Thi8 is a keen specialized knowledge, as so frequently Is evidnced by con. temporaneous publications all Playing up the same story at a time when there Is no outstanding piece of news to suggest itself as the thin.-; to bt played. Long familiarity with news values enables the various editors to aarrive at the same judgment, j No editor cares to risk a libel suit. I Matters of policy will ocrasionlly dic-jtute dic-jtute the playing downjwyrpresslcn ' of news. An editor may be personally' incorruptible, but he will risk a charge of venal ty rather than print noun-thing noun-thing which he knows it would be foolish to print. Most of us would rather be suspected of wrongdoing than to be regarded afl stupid, it is a human and common.sense attittd-?. The general uprightness of one's life will, In time, silence all sander, but no amount of right living will! retrieve re-trieve a reputation for "bone headed-ness.'' headed-ness.'' Few editors are wilfully malicious. Few will go outside of the record to print a mean story. The editor who is too amiable may get a reputation for being a good fellow but a poor newspaperman; nevertheless, it is the general inclination of editors to hs good fellows to the extent of being fair, kind and reasonable to give a good break even to an enemy. Without With-out these qualifications they couil scarcely succeed as editors. Matters of public record are, of course, legitimate news. No newspaper newspa-per can be censured for printing them in their entirety, for the assumption is that they have become publk knowledge. This is not always true. A thing burled in an obscure court record may be far from public know, ledge. As a rule the newspaper per-fc)ns per-fc)ns a srvice in bringing It to ligst. In many cases, however, the full record rec-ord Is not used. Sometimes it Is suppressed sup-pressed entirely, the Information being be-ing f such a character that it were J better to suppress it. In these cases, were it let to a community vote, the 'verdict would be that the newspaper performed a greater service in suppression sup-pression than it would have in the plnting. No newspaper man prints everything every-thing he knows. T5ie figup,ative rule is that he must proceed without fear pr favor, but the newspaper calling is a reasonable one, like every other occupation,' there are exceptions to its firmest rules. |
