Page:Newspaper writing and editing.djvu/360

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

for personal advantage. Some banks, these critics declare, have refused loans to newspapers the policies of which were inimical to the interests largely represented among the stockholders or the customers of the banks; and when loans have been made to newspapers by other banks, such indebtedness has sometimes been used to prevent the newspapers from maintaining or adopting policies hostile to their interests. So-called "yellow journalism," critics of newspapers point out, furnishes another example of the commercializing of the press, because, in order to increase their circulation and profits, the publishers of "yellow" journals pander to their readers' cravings for the sensational. A number of newspapers have published advertisements of fraudulent and questionable enterprises because of the additional revenues to be obtained from this source. Whether these charges are true of a number of newspapers or of only a few, the existence of these conditions and the possibility of these dangers make the subject one of vital importance not only to newspaper men but to every citizen of the country.

Suppression of News. If, for example, owners of retail stores request newspapers in which they advertise to suppress all news of elevator accidents in their stores because such news hurts their business, the newspaper publishers might consent to this suppression on the ground that it is more important to retain the good will and patronage of these advertisers than to give their readers the news of the accidents. The very existence of the paper, they may argue, depends upon these advertisers, and, after all, newspapers give their readers the accounts of so many other accidents that those concerning elevators in department stores will never be missed. This seems to be a logical argument for omitting news of this kind, but when the results of such sup-