On Journalism
A newspaper is much more than a business; it is an institution. It reflects and influences the life of a community; it may affect even wider destinies.
It is, in its way, an instrument of government. It plays on the minds and consciences of man. It may educate, stimulate, assist, or it may do the opposite. It has, therefore, a moral as well as a material existence, and its character and influence are in the main determined by the balance of these two forces. It may make profit or power its first object, or it may conceive itself as fulfilling a higher and more exacting function.
Character is a subtle affair, and has many shades and sides to it. It isnot a thing to be much talked about, but rather to be felt. It is the slow deposit of past actions and ideals.
At the peril of its soul, a newspaper must see that the news it supplies is not tainted. Neither in what it gives, nor in what it does not give, nor in the mode of presentation, must the unclouded face of truth suffer wrong. Comment is free, but facts are sacred. "Propaganda," so called, by this means is hateful. The voice of opponents no less than that of friends has a right to be heard. Comment also is justly subject to a self-imposed restraint. It is well to be frank; it is even better to be fair. This is an ideal. Achievement in such matters is hardly given to man. Perhaps none of us can attain to it in the desirable measure. We can but try, ask pardon for shortcomings, and there leave the matter.
One of the virtues, perhaps the chief virtue, of a newspaper is its independence. Whatever its position or character, it should have a soul of its own.
That is the path of self-respect----it is also the path of success. And what a work it is! How multiform, how responsive to every need and every incident of life! What illimitable possibilities of achievement and of excellence!
To the man, whatever his place on the paper, nothing should satisfy short of the best. It is here that ability counts and that character counts, and it is on these that a newspaper, if it is to be worthy of its power and duty, must rely.
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