advertisers protested to the "Tribune," and the managing editor of the "Tribune" censored Mr. Winter's reviews. During the controversy, Mr. Winter wrote to the managing editor that he had desired to injure the business of the producers of indecent plays; to which the managing editor replied; "My instructions with regard to that page are that the articles are not to be framed with any such purpose."
The same thing happened to Walter Pritchard Eaton, dramatic critic of the "New York Sun." I learned of it just as my book was going to press, and wired Mr. Eaton for the facts. Here is his answer:
Syndicate withdrew ads from "Sun" after my review of Soul Kiss,
demanding my discharge. Six months later I was fired, no cause
given. Next Sunday all ads back in paper. No actual proof but
conclusion pretty plain.
Everywhere in the world of Journalism, high and low, you
see this power of the advertiser. I live in the beautiful millionaire
city of Pasadena, and every afternoon I get my news of
the world from a local paper, which is in some ways among
the best. It publishes no scare headlines, and practically no
scandal; but in its attitude toward its big commercial advertisers,
the attitude of this newspaper is abject. There is a page
of moving-picture advertisements, and side by side are columns
of "write-ups" of these plays. Nine out of ten of these plays
are unspeakable trash, but from the notices you would think
that a new era of art was dawning upon Pasadena. All this is
"dope," sent out by the moving-picture exploiters; such a thing
as an independent and educative review of a moving-picture is
not conceivable in my local newspaper. And it is the same with
"write-ups" of bargain-sales, and new openings of department-stores.
It is the same with the chain of leisure-class hotels; the
man who manages and finances these hotels is a local god, and
everything he does and says takes the top of the column.
This system of publicity in return for advertising is a fundamentally dishonest one, but it is inseparable from the business of publishing news for profit, and the legitimate and the illegitimate shade into one another so gradually that it would be hard for an honest editor to know where to draw the line. The rule will differ with every newspaper; it may differ with every editor and every mood of every editor. I have made a little study of it with my local newspaper, and had some
