national importance. Local correspondents sometimes fail to see events in true perspective. “ But it is one thing to charge it
[the Associated Press) with not coming up to the full measure
of an extremely high and arduous responsibility , and an alto gether different thing to accuse it of wilful and systematic suppression.” 19 It is charged that the news supplied is partisan . This also is
incredible. The newspapers making up its membership represent every shade of political, industrial, economic , social, and re
ligious opinion, — the furnishing of partisan news would mean the instant disintegration of the Association . The charge un doubtedly has its basis in the headlines under which the news appears, but these are written by the receiving office, not by
the news-supplying Association . These captions as found in different papers may be quite contradictory , even for the same
account, but whatever of partisan tinge they may have has been acquired in the local office, not through the Associated Press. The charge that inaccurate , sensational, and exaggerated news is sent out is equally incredible. Not infrequently brief statements of minor events are sent out by the Associated Press ; these may be embroidered by local reporters and appear all over the country in accounts that bear little relation to what actually
occurred;20 they may appear under sensational headlines out of all proportion to the relative importance of the dispatches them selves. But the Associated Press can not be held responsible for the accounts written by irresponsible reporters connected with
the papers constituting its membership . Over against these somewhat irresponsible, wholesale charges, the fundamental points of which have not as yet been proved in a single instance, the historian must put the very nature of the organization of the Associated Press as the best guarantee that could be desired of the general authoritativeness of its 19 “ The Associated Press," The Nation , March 12, 1914 , 98 : 256 - 257. 20 At one time a slight accident occurred in the chemical laboratory of a
college. It was due to the haste of a student who , in heating alcohol for a very simple experiment, had not followed instructions. An account of it ,
giving every fact, was written in six lines by the president of the college and sent to the press . This brief statement was expanded by some papers into a column of description filled with harrowing details and everywhere it assumed various forms.
