Willard Grosvenor Bleyer

“ The student of journalism should know the conditions as they exist, so that he may face the problems squarely and choose deliberately the course that he desires to pursue. Too often reporters, editors, or publishers have not weighed fully the ultimate effects produced by suppressing or coloring the news. It is only by full consideration of the public function of the newspaper as a factor in the social and political life of the community that the true significance of dealing lightly with the truth as a crime against society is revealed in unmistakable colors. ”

“ A generation ago government regulation of railroad rates, foodstuffs, and the size of business combinations would have been regarded as unjustifiable interference with personal liberty. To-day any government interference with newspapers is considered as an attack on the freedom of the press. Is it not possible that the next generation may see every newspaper of this country compelled by public opinion, if not by legislation, to give complete, unbiased reports of all events of general interest? ”

“ Stories recognized by the reader as untrue, either as a whole or in part, shake his confidence in the truth of all newspaper reports and lead him to discount all the news that he reads. Thus the value of the press as a source of reliable information is seriously impaired. From whatever point of view “faking” is regarded, therefore, it is indefensible. It hurts the guilty writer; it hurts the victim of “the fake”; it hurts the newspaper that publishes it; it hurts journalism generally. ”

“ The experiences of strikers and their families are read by many who know little and care less about the economic conditions that produce the strike. So vitally do we feel ourselves concerned with the fate of our fellow men, even when we do not know them personally, that accounts of human life lost or endangered are read with great eagerness. “Many lives lost!” is the cry that the newsboy knows will sell the most papers. From the point of view of the newspaper the greater the number of lives thus involved in the event, the better is the news. ”

“ To furnish for a cent or two a fairly complete record of important events that take place in any corner of the world, editorial comment, market quotations, reviews of new books, critiques of plays and concerts, fashion hints, cooking recipes, cartoons, and illustrations, as well as advertisements of all kinds, would seem a stupendous, not to say impossible, task if it were not an everyday phenomenon. A single copy of a daily newspaper in a large city contains, exclusive of advertising, from 60,000 to 80,000 words, or as many as does the average novel. ”

“ In interviewing, as in all reporting, the newspaper man should not take notes in the presence of the person with whom he is talking unless he feels sure it can be done without affecting the freedom and ease with which the man will talk. As soon as a reporter begins to take notes, the speaker at once realizes that his statements are to appear in black and white for the world to read. ”

“ Local news, accordingly, takes precedence over news from elsewhere of equal or greater importance as measured by the general standards of news value. Interest in most news stories may be said to vary inversely in proportion to the distance between the place of the event described and the place where the paper is published. Just as the splash is greatest where a stone strikes the water, the ripples growing less and less marked as the force of the shock spreads out over the pond, so the impression made by an occurrence grows less and less the farther one goes from the scene of action. ”

“ In guaranteeing the freedom of the press, the framers of the first amendments to the Constitution realized that it is necessary in a democracy to have full information and free discussion on all questions, social, economic, and political. They believed as did Milton when he wrote, in his great defense of liberty of the press addressed to the English Parliament at the very dawn of English journalism, “Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity must be much arguing, much writing, many opinions, for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.” ”

“ We should contend for an income tax not simply for the purpose of raising revenue but for the purpose of framing a revenue system which will distribute the burdens of government between consumption and accumulated wealth, which will enable us to call upon property and wealth not in an unfair and burdensome way but in a just and equitable way to meet their proportionate expenses of the government, for certainly it will be conceded by all that the great expense of government is in the protection of property and of wealth. ”

“ In political warfare the interest of many is largely in the struggle for victory, with the power that victory brings, rather than any results that will affect the individual directly. Accounts of all these forms of fighting to win make good news stories.
“Human Interest.” The fellow feeling that makes all the world akin, the sympathy that binds together men who have little in common, is the basis of interest which we have in the actions, thoughts, and feelings of others. ”

“ How the Copy-Reader Works. In all this work of the copy-reader the important element is speed. Every minute is valuable in the newspaper office, and only those who can work rapidly as well as accurately can expect to hold a position long. To rearrange, to reconstruct, to correct, rather than to rewrite, and to do this quickly and skillfully, is the real work of the copy-reader. To putter over details is an inexcusable fault. The combination of speed and accuracy in a copy-reader is the ideal of the editor. ”

“ When an editor tells a reporter, a rewrite man, or a copy-reader to play up a certain “feature” in a news story, he determines to a considerable extent what the effect of that piece of news will be upon the readers. By cutting out important details, by shifting the emphasis from one particular to another, by inserting a word here and there, editors and copy-readers may completely alter the impression made by the news. The size and character of the headline given a story produce quite as great an impression on the reader as the story itself. ”

“ For one type of feature story the reporter takes the facts of the news and finds behind them the real meaning of the event to those who play a part in it. The event thus becomes an episode in the drama of human life, sometimes comic, sometimes tragic. Such a story involves feelings as well as facts. To write it successfully the reporter must be able to see the picturesque, humorous, and pathetic phases of life about him; he must feel with those to whom the events mean much. Keen insight into human nature, and sympathy with its strength and its weakness, are essential. ”

“ With the quickening of the public conscience in regard to political and social conditions has come a keener appreciation of the importance of the newspaper as the greatest single source of information in our democracy, and a realization of the dangers of abuse of this power by editors and publishers. Whatever opinions may be held as to present-day standards in journalism, every one will grant that it is the duty of those who enjoy the advantages of university training in preparation for this profession to maintain the highest ideals in their own work. ”

“ The Problem of News Gathering. The mystery of newspaper making, to the uninitiated, is how editors and reporters find out everything that happens and how they get it into print in a very short time. It seems strange to the average person that when an accident occurs in the block in which he lives, the first news of it often reaches him through the newspaper. The apparent omnipresence, not to say omniscience, of the reporter leads to the not unnatural assumption that the news gatherer walks about the city waiting Micawber-like for “something to turn up.” ”

“ News stories demand all the literary ability that the reporter possesses, for besides presenting the news clearly they must be interesting and attractive. Effectiveness in a simple style lies in that choice and arrangement of words which enables the reader to get the meaning with the least effort and the greatest interest.
Conciseness. Conciseness is the second essential of the style of the news story. This, again, does not mean that only the bare skeleton of news is required, for good news stories are clothed with flesh and blood to make them real and to give them human interest. ”

“ How much will it interest the average reader? Is it really new and timely? Examine every phase of an event or idea for what will be of greatest interest to the greatest number. Look always for what will appeal to the average reader as most unusual, curious, remarkable. Consider the things that give most persons great pleasure and satisfaction. Don’t overlook the “human interest” element in the day’s events. Remember that a good fight interests many, whether it is in politics, business, or sport. Don’t neglect children in the news; though small they make a big appeal. ”

“ When a more aggressive attitude is necessary to secure what he wants and has a right to have, he is equal to the occasion. But whatever may be the circumstances, the reporter never forgets that he is a gentleman, and that the newspaper which he represents never expects him to do anything to get the news that he or it need be ashamed to acknowledge to the world. ”

“ What is news? Where and how is news to be obtained? and, How is news to be presented to the reader? The first question involves the definition of news and the determination of its value, the second concerns the gathering of news, and the third has to do with structure and style in the writing of news.
What is News? Although every good newspaper worker recognizes news at once, and almost instinctively decides upon its value, most of them find it difficult to express in brief form what news is and what determines its value. ”

“ The income tax is the fairest and most equitable of all the taxes. It is the one tax which approaches us in the hour of prosperity and departs in the hour of adversity. The farmer though he may have lost his entire crop must meet the taxes levied upon his property. The merchant though on the verge of bankruptcy must respond to the taxes imposed. The laborer who goes to the store to buy his food, though it be his last, must buy with whatever extra cost there may be imposed by reason of customs duties.
But the income tax is to be met only after you have realized your income. ”

“ The rule that a news story should never begin with the articles “a,” “an,” or “the,” is neither supported by actual newspaper practice nor based on entirely sound principles. Good emphasis at the beginning is what such a rule strives to secure and in so far as it calls attention to the desirability of beginning the story with an important word in place of an article, it is justified. Often, however, in order to get the most significant element into the first group of words it is absolutely necessary to use one of the articles. ”

“ In this presentation of methods of newspaper making the object has been to explain and to exemplify current practices in journalism rather than to discuss the ultimate purpose and results of such methods. It is evident, however, that unless the reporter and the editor, consciously or unconsciously, set up for themselves ideals based on their conception of the function of the newspaper, they have no standards by which to measure the character of their work. Merely to accept existing methods without analyzing them to determine their results, is to overlook their underlying purpose. ”

“ He is not justified in defending his failure to get and present the truth and the whole truth on the ground that as long as a story is interesting it makes little difference whether or not it is entirely true. The first temptation to depart from the truth not infrequently comes in an apparently innocent form. In the absence of real news, or in an effort to show his cleverness, the reporter takes some trivial incident and, by amplifying it with humorous but imaginary details, makes of it an amusing little feature story. ”

“ After you have met your expenses, provided for your family, paid for the education of your children for the year, then, provided you have an income left, you turn to meet the obligations you owe to the government. For instance, according to amendments recently pending relative to the income tax, a man with an income of ten thousand dollars would pay the modest sum of one hundred dollars. “Man as a human being owes services to his fellows, and one of the first of these is to support the government which makes civilization possible.” ”

“ The personality sketch, or article that undertakes to present a vivid impression of the character and individuality of some person who plays a part in the news of the day, is another type of feature story that is popular. The interest of most readers in the human, personal side of famous or infamous characters in current events is so great that they eagerly read articles of this kind. Dates and facts of biography have little attraction for them; they want the man to be portrayed so vividly that they can see and know him. ”

“ All these arguments are put forth in the hope of leading us away from the great and fundamental principle of equity in taxation, and that is that every man should respond to the burdens of the government in accordance with his ability. It is nothing less than a crime to put all the burdens of this government on consumption.
I think those who advocate the income tax merely as a revenue producing proposition rob the proposition of its moral foundation. ”