American Journalism And Its Historical Treatment I BY ALLAN NEVINS* The president of the American Historical Association surveys the field of journalism history and concludes that the product is thin and uneven. He analyzes the causes of weak performance, states requirements for improvement and recommends establish- ment of an AEJ press evaluation project.

fl EVERYONE WILL AGREE THAT SINCE example, the total circulation of all the days of Benjamin Franklin the newspapers is below 75,000. It brought American press has made a more inter- out clear evidence that in all totalita- esting, variegated and important record rian lands educated people feel a deep than that of any other nation. But how thirst for a press which can freely tell should that record be written? As a the truth. In short, the report made it chapter in our culture? As a striking plain that a vigorous democracy and a part of American business enterprise? vigorous free journalism have the clos- Or in relation to the workings of demo- est interrelationships, so that one can- cratic government? The answer is, of not exist without the other. This inter- course, in all three lights; but there can dependence is the central theme in the be no question that the thud is the most history of the press in any free country. significant. During the last century a series of Early this year the International memorable phrases were invented to Press Institute in Zurich published a characterize the role of the press in study of The Press in Authoritarian good government. A regent of sover- Countries which every journalist and eigns, a tutor of nations, said Napoleon historian should read. It showed how I. Edmund Burke’s remark that jour- much of the world’s press, from Russia nalism is the Fourth Estate was given to the Dominican Republic and Indo- popular currency by Carlyle’s French nesia, is in chains. It demonstrated how Revolution. Carlyle himself said that fatal to healthy journalism are authori- journalists had become the true kings tarian controls; in Santo Domingo, for and clergy, and that newspaper dynas- ties had replaced the Tudors and the Hapsburgs. Norman Angel1 termed *The author, noted American historian and newspapers the chief witnesses upon long a professor at Columbia University, is now senior research fellow at the Huntington Library, whose evidence the daily judgments of San Marino. California. Among his many books, men on public affairs are based. two of the best known in journalism are his hfs- tory of the New York Evenlng Post and his Amerlcan Press Opinlon. His article was prc- One of the most emphatic statements pared for the session of the AEJ Committee on of the social and governmental impor- History at the convention in Eugene, Oregon, in August 1959. tance of the press can be found in the

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Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 412 JOURNALISM QUARTERLY defense which Italian Fascism made of published. The greater newspapers of its laws for controlling the press. The Paris-Le Temps, Le Moniteur, Le state manages the public schools, said Matin, Figaro, and so on-are each so the Fascists, so that they may always closely identified with specific economic teach patriotism. Newspapers are or political groups, or with some com- “schools for character, lecture rooms pelling individual, that any historian for daily teaching, pulpits for preach- who approached them would find him- ing”; hence they also must be tightly self dealing with the ruling regime, the controlled. But the Fascists forgot the group or a prominent leader. A history truth reiterated by the International of the mid-19th century Moniteur is Press Institute, that a tightly controlled only a history of Napoleon 111, and a press is a dead press. history of I’Homme Libre, later Journalism can be the best single in- l’Hornme Enchain&, is but a history of strument of democratic self-govern- Clemenceau. ment, informing the mind, enlightening Even the history of British journal- the conscience and freeing the spirit of ism has been less ably covered than intelligent citizens. It can also be a ours. It is in some respects the most mortal foe of modern democracy, and distinguished press record, running that sometimes in subtle ways. Only from Daniel Defoe to Sir William Ha- history can place the achievements and ley, in the world. One unmatched shortcomings of the newspapers of any mountain-peak of historical achieve- land in full and fair perspective. Sound ment, the five-volume study of the historical works on the press and its London Times by Stanley Morison and leaders are as important to the United others, fittingly commemorates the States as sound works on presidents and work of the most powerful single news- cabinet officers, generals and admirals, paper. But beyond this the historians inventors and industrialists. This have done little, particularly for the branch of history should be expert, in- last century. It is unfortunate that so cisive and candid-as sternly critical illustrious a journal as the Manchester for recent periods, especially as our Guardian is represented in our libraries histories of Second World War cam- by nothing but a slight 200-page sketch, paigns, written by Bradley, Montgom- and so important a paper as the Lon- ery and Alanbrooke, as unflinching as don Telegraph and Morning Post by the assessments of Munich and Pearl nothing at all. Harbor, as outspoken as the best esti- But the deficiencies of other lands mates of Stanley Baldwin and Herbert cannot be made an excuse for our own, Hoover. Of such history we have as yet for we have greater advantages and the barest beginning. larger responsibilities than European We cannot take much comfort from countries. Our democracy is preemi- the fact that poor as our journalistic nently a newspaper-reading public. history is, it is better than that of any Since Jacksonian days every foreign other nation. No history of German visitor has noted our devotion to daily journalism in the last generation for and weekly publications. Nor is our reasons which need no statement, has journalism dominated, as in Britain and yet been written. For reasons quite dif- France, by a few great centers, for it is ferent, no respectable history of mod- spread from the Penobscot to the Pa- ern French journalism has ever been cific. Local and regional pride is en-

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 Historical Treatment of U.S. Journalism 413 listed behind many of our newspapers history of politics, for apart from a few to an extent impossible in Western unhappy episodes like his enlistment in Europe. Far more money is invested in the battle of fundamentalism against and spent by our press than in and by evolution, Bryan .was merely a political that of any other land. Journalism in animal; and even in politics only a re- America is more highly professionalized stricted number of issues, of which than in any but a few other countries. currency and imperialism were the Why, then, do we have so little good chief, need be considered. But the man history that the number of volumes who writes the history of a great news- which can be termed excellent can be paper for the same period has to take counted on the fingers of two hands? cognizance of a thousand subjects from Assuming that the history of the press the poetry corner to corners in wheat. is better worth writing here than else- If he does not fix on the right princi- where, for we have more of it and have ples of selection and synthesis he it more powerfully; assuming also that might as well throw himself into the it must be expert and objective, or it is nearest vat of printer’s ink. not worth writing at all, what can we When we add that most histories of do to improve its scope and quality? individual newspapers are prepared Paul Lazarsfeld wrote in JOURNALISMwith an eye to pious commemoration, QUARTERLYin 1948: “If there is one or profitable promotion; that the veter- institutional disease to which the media an reporter who, if well trained, would of mass communication seem particu- today make the best historian, usually larly subject, it is a nervous reaction to lacks any training whatever; and that criticism.” The best cure for this sensi- the writer is subject to covert pressures, tivity is more good history of slashing ranging from loss of his job to threats honesty. of libel suits, and too often yields to The thinness and unevenness of work them by evasion if not mendacity, then in this field is largely explained by one we can understand why such histories simple fact: the fact that, as Thackeray are in general poor. said in Pendennis, “All the world is in the newspaper.” The files are replete fl THE TASKS OF SELECTION AND SYN- with entertaining detail on a thousand thesis, and the even greater task of topics, from wars to women, from mu- finding matter of real historical novelty, sic to murders. How easy, the amateur are complicated by the universal failure says, to fill a volume with amusement of American newspapers to preserve and instruction. Actually, the super- any data on two subjects of cardinal abundance of jumbled, disparate and importance: the method of getting mainly trivial details in the files place news, and the facts behind the news. on the writer a burden of assortment Practically no effort is made in our edi- and synthesis under which most men torial offices to get and keep such break down. material. Compare the task of the biographer The unapproached distinction of of a newspaper with that of the biogra- Stanley Morison’s five volumes on the pher of such a public figure as William London Times lies in two facts. The Jennings Bryan. The author of a life of first is that for much more than a cen- Bryan has to relate him to the history tury has been an integral and of his times-and ours; but only to the important part of the political structure

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 414 JOURNALISM QUARTERLY of Great Britain. Its news and its edi- nificant letters from a great number of torial comment have in general been men in public and private life. The carefully coordinated, and have at most Times, we may recall, scooped all other times been handled with an earnest newspapers on the text of the Treaty of sense of responsibility. While the paper Berlin, which De Blowitz’s assistant, has admitted some trivia to its columns, Donald Mackenzie Wallace, carried its whole emphasis has been on impor- from Berlin to Brussels sewed in the tant public affairs treated with an eye to lining of his coat, and thence tele- the best interests of Britain. To guide graphed to London. But the Times was this treatment, the editors have for long quite capable of suppressing a scoop if periods been in close touch with 10 Disraeli or Gladstone or Salisbury Downing Street. Thus when Morison wished it; and then it lay undiscovered came to write his history, he found the until Morison levied upon it for his task of selecting the material already history. largely accomplished. Most American newspapers have The Times itself had selected what some intimacy with the stream of was most important, had lifted it to a events, even though it is on a small proper plane, and had given it the right scale. They deal with affairs for their emphasis. To give one example out of city or state as the London Times dealt many, the Berlin Conference of 1878, with affairs on the national and inter- from which Disraeli brought back peace national level. The difficulty is that they with honor, was covered for the Times do not bring to them, in most instances, by the fabulously expert Paris corre- any high sense of responsibility; and spondent M. De Blowitz; he kept in this handicaps the historian. They close touch with the editor Thomas could keep an archive, if they were not Chenery, who had just succeeded De- too careless or indolent. Any newspaper lane, and with the chief owner, John could ask its best reporters to write Walter 111; they in turn maintained memoranda on significant bits of what close relations with the foreign office. Thomas Hart Benton in his Thirty Morison could feel sure that what the Years’ View called inside history- Times had reported, and what Chenery more important, he said, than external had said in his leaders, was history of a history. Any editor who spent 15 min- specially significant type. utes a week dictating his own confiden- The second reason for the distinction tial memorandum or diary would soon of Morison’s volumes is that the Times have a record priceless to the future kept an unrivaled archive of the news historian. An office diary identifying behind the news. De Blowitz, writing to the author of all unsigned articles of Walter and Chenery, gave the secret note should be an essential part of the history of many episodes and conversa- machinery of every daily-and com- tions which it was impossible to print, ment could be added. and they told much that now adds color Why are archives not kept? Hurry, and life to the narrative. Not infre- lack of space, preoccupation with quently the editors, governed by a cau- crowding daily tasks, are excuses that tious sense of high responsibility, sup- seldom have much validity. What is pressed perfectly truthful dispatches needed is a sense that the newspaper is that it seemed indiscreet to print, and history beyond the day. My own special they went into the archives. So did sig- activities once led me to search care-

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 Historical Treatment of U.S. Journalism 415 fully the offices of the New York Eve- most efficiently treated. The biogra- ning Post, New York Herald (before phies of Horace Greeley by James Par- its merger with the Tribune) and New ton, Glyndon Van Deusen, William H. York World for archival material. They Hale and others, of Samuel Bowles by were practically bare. Readers of my George S. Merriam, of Dana by James life of Grover Cleveland will see that I Grant Wilson, of Henry J. Raymond by did discover in the World morgue one Francis Brown, of Bryant by Parke paper of importance. After the dra- Godwin, of Henry Watterson by Joseph matic battle in 1893 over the repeal of Wall and of George William Curtis by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, Gordon Milne, taken together, provide which opened an irreparable breach be- an adequate impression of the work of tween the President and the party ma- the editorial thunderers. Large gaps yet jority in Congress, the Washington cor- exist. Greeley deserves a really thor- respondent of the World wrote a confi- ough two-volume biography; Joseph dential history of the struggle as he had Pulitzer merits a much better-informed seen it from the lobbies of the capitol and less superficial life than Don C. and the offices of members. This was Seitz gave him; and Edwin L. Godkm all. should long ago have been rescued from the incredibly ill-organized, hel- Lunching with Arthur Sulzberger terskelter chronicle written by Roll0 and some of the editors of the New Ogden. Nevertheless, by and large, our York Times three years ago, I called great editorial personalities have been their attention to the value of an ar- amply displayed. We can readily dis- chive preserving confidential materials. cover how the most powerful captains Mr. Sulzberger then and there gave in- of the press applied their talents to the structions to have such an archive problems of the day, where their judg- formed; but whether these directions ment erred, and what they accom- were ever carried out I do not know. plished. This is the simplest element in newspaper history, the most dignified IN AN EFFORT TO ESCAPE THE DIFFI- and impressive, and with a proper use culties of selection and synthesis from of quotation, the most pungent. A de- the hodgepodge material in the ordinary humanized page on the treatment the newspaper file, writers have resorted to New York press gave the great Hun- two expedients which on a casual view garian patriot, Kossuth, is now but pal- appear legitimate, but which too often idly interesting. But a page on the lead to an abdication of their proper banquet to Kossuth in 1850 at which function. The first expedient is the Bryant presided, Henry J. Raymond adoption of a biographical approach, so was the principal speaker and Greeley that the record is treated in terms of a was an enthusiastic participant, cannot few prominent men. The New York but be fascinating. Sun becomes personified in Dana, the The other expedient used in simplify- Springfield Republican in Samuel Bowles, the Chicago Tribune in Joseph ing the vast melange of material in a Medill. This is proper for that part of newspaper file is the related device of our journalistic history dominated by emphasizing opinion at the expense of great editors, but for that part alone. reporting, views at the expense of news. It is this particular segment of our jour- This, too, is legitimate for the period nalistic annals that has thus far been when opinion was the chief staple of a

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 416 JOURNALISM QUARTERLY great newspaper, as it assuredly was for used his book; it was then undertaken a long generation in the middle of the by Gerald W. Johnson, whose readable 19th century. But it becomes a painful volume is deficient in research-espe- distortion when we reach the modern cially that kind of research which era in which news reigns paramount drains the memories of all surviving as- over opinion. Contrast the Tribune of sociates. It is chiefly with reference to Greeley’s day with the New York Times influence on news-gathering that we as Adolph S. Ochs developed it after need a better biography of Pulitzer than 1896. Greeley’s chief concern was with that of Don C. Seitz, whose main inter- the shaping of public policy by a daily est lay in the counting-room. No one page of informed, positive and some- can run through the sheafs of telegrams times eloquent editorials, and he mar- and memoranda in Pulitzer’s papers at shaled his news, his special articles and Columbia without discerning that he even the letters to the editor to support was a true genius both in ferreting out his page. To Ochs, news-full, honest, news, and in creating it. objective, clean news-was the heart If historians must use the biograph- and soul of the Times; he would have ical approach, it is effective managing dispensed with the editorial page with a editors rather than brilliant editorial relatively minor pang, and always kept writers who since 1900 most deserve it to a minor role. their attention. Lord Bryce in Modern Democracy remarks that civic opinion It is ironic that at the very time the is better instructed in America than far-reaching revolution which mini- in Continental Europe because of better mized opinion and exalted the news was news: “the publicity given by the news- taking place, historians of journalism papers to all that passes in the political busied themselves with the views of the field.” Walter Lippmann has said that great editor and neglected the news- the greatest successes of present-day gatherers. American reporting has be- journalism lie in “the objective, orderly, come the most enterprising, the frank- and comprehensive presentation of the est and most courageous and the most news.” But I know of only one incisive humanly appealing, though not the best study of an eminent managing editor, written, in the world. It is much more James W. Markham’s Bovard of the tough-minded and skeptical than British Post-Dispatch. This paints a living por- reporting, much more objective than trait of an arrogant man who made his French. Yet where can we find a narra- newspaper a force for the betterment of tive which tells just when and why the St. Louis and Missouri; who taught his change took place? In general terms, it best reporters, including Raymond P. is well treated in the admirable histories Brandt, Paul Y. Anderson and Marquis of journalism by Frank Luther Mott, Childs, to get not only the facts but the and by Edwin Emery and Henry Ladd truth behind the facts. Smith, but they have no space for ex- planatory detail and telling examples. We lack an adequate book about an It is in relation to this change that we even more distinguished managing edi- most need a thorough analytical biog- tor, Can- Van Anda. More than Bo- raphy of Ochs. The task of writing one vard, Van Anda saw how complex the was first entrusted to Claude G. Bow- truth is, and realized that to discover it ers, who, working in faroff Chile, failed a great newspaper must have not simply so completely that the family never a slick skill in reporting surface news,

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 Historical Treatment of US. Journalism 417 but a patient, scientific-minded explora- excited days of Jackson and Nullifica- tion, by well educated specialists, of in- tion, the editors invited the public to tricate situations. An event is a force visit the office and read the news they momentarily made visible. The good had not printed. Thomas E. Dabney’s news specialist must look for the force book on the New Orleans Times-Pica- behind the event, as something to be yune, One Hundred Great Years, is a explored, measured and analyzed. waterless Sahara so far as the treatment of news-gathering goes. It is through the news pages, special features and the exploratory work of fl IS REFRESHING TO LIST A FEW labor specialists, educational specialists, IT shining exceptions to this category of sports specialists, economic specialists failure. The general histories by Mott, and others that the best newspapers to- and by Emery and Smith, give excellent day exercise leadership. But where is running accounts of progress in news- the historical record of this change? A gathering, and such books as Leo Ros- reader may go through a long shelfful ten’s The Washington Correspondents of books searching for light on news- and Douglass Cater’s recent The Fourth gathering and news-analysis, and end in Branch of Government, while not his- despair. Sam Acheson’s history of the tory, contain many historical precep- Dallas News, for example, entitled tions and episodes. The best of all our 35,000 Days in Texas, is primarily con- newspaper chronicles, Meyer Berger’s cerned with editorial positions on local, volume on the New York Times, is the national and international issues since work of a skilled reporter. It deals thor- 1842. We learn of the newspaper’s atti- oughly and expertly with the method, tudes toward Texas banking laws and development and outstanding achieve- Ma Ferguson, the Grover Cleveland ments of news-gathering, especially dur- and Woodrow Wilson campaigns, and ing the last half-century. With an im- the Spanish War; but we find no discus- portant story to tell, Berger relates it sion of news-gathering in connection so brilliantly, in fact, that we hesitate to with these or other subjects. Archer add one critical reservation: his book is Shaw’s offers two 10- page sections on news, one of which written in pure journalese, undiluted by sketches wartime reporting, but the rec- a touch of stylistic elegance. It had an ord of the Plain Dealer’s valiant fight able preceding volume to surpass, for Tom L. Johnson’s crusades, which Elmer Davis’s; but that, while in better earned Johnson’s special thanks, is writ- English, is more largely concerned with the editorial conduct of the Times. ten in editorial terms. Joseph E. Cham- berlain’s The Boston Transcript: A His- Erwin D. Canham’s history of the tory of Its First Hundred Years, is simi- Christian Science Monitor, Commit- larly disappointing. He tells well such ment to Freedom, has the balance that stories as that of the skinflint manager we would anticipate from its author. William Durant, the most picturesque John P. Young’s Journalism in Califor- of the Transcript’s heads, who consist- nia, a volume concerned generally with ently opposed raising the wages of em- San Francisco and specifically with the ployees on the ground that more money Chronicle, is spasmodically strong in its would demoralize them. The one mem- analysis of reporting, and in relating the orable item on news policy in the Chronicle to the social milieu. Young Transcript history records that in the analyzes the news in its historical and

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 418 JOURNALISM QUARTERLY social context, discusses such topics as pedition in 1844 to Herbert L. Mat- the effect of high telegraph charges on thews’s Education of a Correspondent conciseness, and investigates the truth more than a century later. What news- of the Morning Call‘s statement that paperman cannot learn a hundred les- San Francisco reporting in the early sons from the second book of Lincoln decades was “beneath contempt,” con- Steffens’sAutobiography, with two hun- cluding that this was because newspa- dred pages on a newspaper reporter’s permen were untrained in observation. work in the days of Boss Croker, Jacob The sparkling volume by Gerald Riis and Police Commissioner Roose- Johnson, H. L. Mencken and others on velt? the Sunpapers of Baltimore does partial But systematic history holds a larger justice to news, almost equating it with usefulness. The reporting of the Civil opinion. Across the continent Dana War by American correspondents has Marshall’s Newspaper Story: Fifty at last been comprehensively analyzed Years of the Oregon Journal, the work by trained historians, Louis Starr of of a reporter and special writer who be- Columbia University, Bernard A. Weis- came head of the editorial page, care- berger of Antioch College, Emmet Cro- fully relates the development of news zier, and J. Cutler Andrews of the to the growth of Portland. Here the Pennsylvania College for Women. Mr. paper and community appear insepa- Andrews is a product of Arthur M. rably wedded, serving each other, and Schlesinger’s Harvard seminar. So is all the crusades in which the Journal J. Eugene Smith, whose One Hundred played a part, from campaigns for bet- Years of the Hartford Courant is the ter mayors to campaigns for better most skilfully planned of all newspaper milk, can be found in some detail. We histories. Similarly, Harry Baehr’s ca- may find material of value on news- pable book on The New York Tribune gathering in such dissimilar books as since the Civil War, with a sound ac- James Weber Linn’s life of James Kee- count of the way in which the line was ley, the greatest of Chicago managing held against sensational news in yellow- editors, who found zest in a hundred press days, Candace Stone’s treatment exploits, from his personal chase of a of Dana and the Sun and Joseph Wall’s murderer through the swamps of Ar- life of Watterson, three exceptionally kansas to his chase of Senator William good books, were products of a Colum- Lorimer through the swamps of Chi- bia graduate seminar. cago politics; Ralph E. Dyer’s News for an Empire, revolving about the Spo- IF NEWSPAPER HISTORY IS MARRED kane Spokesman-Review; and J. Cutler by thinness and spottiness, and over- Andrews’s study of the Pittsburg Post- emphasis on editorial personalities and Gazette, which discusses reporters and opinion as distinguished from reporters illustrators along with editors and cir- and news, it has one still more glaring culation managers. fault. Taken as a whole, it is deplorably Of course it can be said that the uncritical and some of it is dishonest. greatest reporters tell their own stories With too few exceptions, the authors most entertainingly, as they have done wrote like kept hacks. In their silences from the time George Wilkins Kendall they imitate some present-day attitudes of the New Orleans Picayune penned of the press itself. Newspapers have his narrative of the Texas Suntu Fe Ex- long been accused by such observers as

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 Historical Treatment of U.S. Journalism 419 Oswald Garrison Villard and Walter issues-and if a third side existed, Lippmann of refusing to criticize them- would get on that; and it can so easily selves, or each other, or journalism in be quoted out of context. The America- general. An excessive regard for press Firster attitudes of the Chicago Tribune comity estops each journal from speak- just before Pearl Harbor, and the de- ing ill of others, or from noting even fense of Joseph McCarthy by the egregious blunders and offenses. Many Hearst press, were foolish and immoral, newspapers are unwilling to print intel- but any agile newspaper historian ligence about libel suits against their could find quotations to prove that they contemporaries. Most offices have sa- embodied a profound patriotism. Of cred cows stabled somewhere, but the course most historical dishonesties are greatest sacred cow is journalism itself. on a minor scale, and can be labelled Yet bad as newspaper practice is, some simply special pleading; still, they are press historians go further; they gloss dishonesties. It was dishonest of me in over blunders, defend misinterpretations the Evening Post history to suppress the and injustices, and sweep glaring omis- bitter quarrel between the owner, Vil- sions and lost opportunities under the lard, and the editor, Rollo Ogden, both bed. then living and both hypersensitive. It Why? Theoretically, the veteran was dishonest of Elmer Davis to treat newspaperman is a hardboiled, tough- Charles R. Miller’s Times editorial of minded writer, ready in pursuit of truth September 16, 1918, urging uncondi- to cut his own mother’s throat. Actual- tional acceptance of the Austro-Hun- ly, in historical vein, he often writes garian proposal for a non-binding dis- like a mawkish sentimentalist, or a cussion of peace terms, as shrewd and party wheelhorse at convention time re- judicious, though Woodrow Wilson’s calling the greatness of James G. wiser treatment of the proposal showed Blaine. We have mentioned one rea- that Miller was guilty of a deplorable son, the promotional origin of many gafle. We can read Frank M. OBrien’s histories. Another reason is that em- book on the New York Sun without ployees fall in love with their paper; the slightest realization of the harm they awaken every morning saying to wrought by Dana’s cynical defense of themselves (to paraphrase H. J. Mas- Tammany, hatred of civil service re- singham), “I wonder how the dear old form, spasms of jingoism and constant slut is this morning? Damn the hussy! demands for the annexation of Cuba I must do something for her.” Knowing and Canada. Henry Adams tells us that her sins, they love her too much to ex- he could have found a place on Dana’s pose them. A third reason is that all staff, but he knew that he could never ephemeral media, like the stage, the please himself and Dana too, for “with ballet, the motion pictures or the circus, the best intentions he must always fail become invested with a romantic aura as a blackguard, and a strong dash of and encrusted with legends. As a result, blackguardism was life to the Sun.” To the typical newspaper historian is a grasp the blackguardism, a reader must laudator tempus acti, who hangs noth- drop O’Brien and read Candace Stone’s ing but spotless linen on the line. book. This is easy, because the newspaper The history of the London Times by reflects light from so many facets; it so Morison and others is in general un- often gets on both sides of important flinchingly honest. It tells everything,

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 420 JOURNALISM QUARTERLY for example, about the libelous Times accuracy, making plain the vital part accusations against Charles Stewart played by the Times. But according to Parnell, based on forged letters, and Lord Beaverbrook, he did not make it about the ruinous penalty; for the ensu- plain that Dawson had used unfair ing suit cost the Times almost 2200,- weapons. 000. But even this admirable history has been accused by no less a person fi OUR NEWSPAPER HISTORIANS HAVE than Lord Beaverbrook of flinching at not told the truth about the external the full truth when it deals with the ab- pressures which have so often colored dication of Edward VIII. This story is news and opinion. Murat Halstead re- marked to the Wisconsin Press Associ- told in an appendixIL to the final volume. Morison makes it plain that the ation in 1889 that he saw no objection Times was one of the principal agents if readers should “find out that the ad- in compelling the abdication. Indeed, vertiser occasionally dictates the edito- its editor, Geoffrey Dawson, a man of rials.” “No objection at all to that,” re- formidable intellectual and personal joined E. L. Godkin; “the objection is force, stood next to Prime Minister when they don’t find it out.” Direct ad- Stanley in the unseating of vertiser-dictation has largely disap- Edward ~111.D~~~~~ was one of the peared; but the treatment of news is first men in Britain to learn of the still prostituted, all over the map, to the King,s love affair. Horrified, he set out acquisition of larger and more vulgar on what Beaverbrook calls a “propa- bodies of readers, so that circulation ganda canvass” of public men. The managers may go to advertisers and king offered Baldwin a plan for a mor- boast of the clientele which their paper ganatic marriage, by which he would reaches. Historians have failed to em- take a wife but not a queen. The prime phasize properly the stupid conserva- minister notified Geoffrey Dawson of Of most Of the press, its blind this before he consulted the Cabinet, or attachment to the quo* and espe- the heads of the great dominions, and cially the economic status quo. Frank- the puritanical editor was again horri- lin D. Roosevelt in 1938 remarked on fied. He at once began a tremendous this reactionary hostility to change, say- campaign in the Times upon the im- hg of the papers using the Associated portance of keeping the Crown Press or United Press services that he plete~yfree from any taint of personal estimated “85 percent of *em have scandal; and according to Beaverbrook, been fear in this he published one article which was in- during the past year*” He was quite nocent on its surface, but which carried right; the newspapers, themselves busi- and malicious innuendo.” ness enterprises, have repeatedly been At the outset public opinion in Britain too responsive to business in opposition had been heavily on the side of the king to needed change* and his proposal. Dawson and the Press historians rightly make much Times swayed it in the apposite direc- of Paul Y. Anderson’s part in remorse- tion, until on a foggy December night lessly following the oil scandals under the Duke of Windsor boarded the de- Harding to the doors of the Republi- stroyer Fury for a French port. No can National Committee, but they say reader of Morison’s pages can doubt little of the general inertia and compla- that he has told the story with general cency of newspapers in Harding’s day.

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 Historical Treatment of U.S. Journalism 421 They say even less about the callous in- journalism is much needed in every sec- daerence of most metropolitan news- tion of the country. The extent to papers to depressed economic groups, which lurid reporting under slanted such as the farmers, miners and textile headlines has interfered with the ad- workers, during the boom of the 1920s. ministration of justice in the courts of- Mr. Dyar in News for an Empire fers another problem which the histo- quotes the statement which President rian could profitably explore. Truman made in Spokane in 1948 Much could also be said of various about the Spokesman-Review: “This requirements, as yet badly met, in the paper and the Chicago Tribune are the history of newspapers as business insti- worst in the United States.” But he does tutions, for their financial record bears not explain the sins of omission and on their stability and their independence. commission which led to this outburst. Most newspaper histories neglect even a Long ago Dr. Johnson spoke of the partial account of circulation revenue, debasing effects of great conflicts upon advertising revenue, profits and losses, press ethics: “In wartime a people only because records are wanting, or secrecy want to hear two things-good of is desired, or such matters seem dull. It themselves, and evil of the enemy. And is curious, for example, that after I know not what is more to be feared Ochs’s original purchase, the financial after a war, streets full of soldiers who history of the New York Times is al- have learned to rob, or garrets full of most entirely omitted from Meyer scribblers who have learned to lie.” But Berger’s otherwise complete narrative. we still lack a full expost of the effects When I wrote the history of the Eve- of the First and Second World Wars on ning Post I found no hancial records the hysterical and irresponsible parts of anterior to 1900, and few later; the the American press. Villard family had some, which were not open to me. We have numerous accounts of the more blatant indecencies of yellow Far more important than this, how- journalism, with special attention to ever, is a proper treatment of the pub- such episodes as the Spanish War. As lic service function of newspapers. It is Matthew Arnold said long ago, sensa- of the first importance, now that so tional papers offer ‘‘the best means to many cities have but one newspaper, efface and kill in a whole nation the that historians study the question discipline of respect, the feeling for whether a correlation can be traced be- what is elevated.” The blatant indecen- tween a good newspaper and a well- cies, however, often do less harm than governed community, a bad paper and those of a subtle, insidious kind. A re- a badly managed community. Was the cent book by Judge Irwin D. Davidson Boston of James Curley what it was and Richard Gehman, entitled The Jury partly because Boston newspapers (the Is Still Out, explores at length the mur- Monitor excluded) were so wretched? der of a crippled New York boy, Was Louisville a specially healthy city Michael Farmer, by a street gang. Not because of the public spirit of the the least important part of the book Courier-Journal? Mayors come and go, analyzes the contribution to social dis- but a newspaper is a continuing insti- order steadily made by the gutter press. tution. Honest depiction of the immense but No subject is of more importance hidden harm long done by sensational than this to the political scientist, the

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 422 JOURNALISM QUARTERLY sociologist, the general historian-and lies that they should not have histories the aspiring young newspaperman. The because a really veracious record would best young men and women enter the be .impossible, and even a counterfeit profession because they hope to make record would be repellent or painful. not only better newspapers, but better But every good journal is worth a his- towns and cities. Many evidences point tory, which will benefit the paper, the to the fact disclosed by Columbia Uni- community and the nation. versity’s examination of the young peo- Second, every newspaper which ple who attend its Scholastic Press Con- deems its record worthy of commemo- vention each year. They state that they ration should keep an archive. This know that journalism seems less attrac- means that some member of its stafE tive than law, medicine, engineering, should learn the rudiments of archival science or even university teaching; as a method; that an elementary office diary profession it is low in pay, low in amen- should be kept; that editors and report- ities, low in social prestige. But they ers should be encouraged to make believe they can play a more direct and memoranda, save significant in-letters, fruitful part in community improve- and keep carbons of important out-let- ment through newspaper work than ters; and that in general, some record through any other calling. Their first be made both of the methods of news- task, of course, is to improve the news- gathering, and of the untold truth be- papers, and it is discouraging to see hind the news. The problem of room how little our fast-multiplying schools for an archive can sometimes be solved of journalism have thus far done for by the cooperation of the nearest his- such betterment. The theory of Dean torical society or library. Luxon of North Carolina that 50 years is too short a time to measure their ef- In the third place, the choice of a fect is rather cold comfort. But ambi- writer should not be left to chance or tious young entrants have their eyes impulse. It will of course depend on fixed on the greater goal of service to circumstances. A history written as pro- town, or city, or state; and every his- motion is better than no history at all, tory which can tell a story of such ser- but the promotional motive should be vice will give them inspiration. secondary. A writer selected within the office, and particularly in the news- WHAT, THEN, ARE THE PRINCIPAL room, will be more expert than an out- requirements to be satisfied if we are to sider; an outsider will be more objec- have the adequate histories of journal- tive. Any writer should make the full- istic effort that we now lack? They are est use of oral reminiscences. The ad- implied in what I have already said, vice of a good college or university de- and may be summarized under a few partment of history can be obtained headings. more readily than most newspapermen suppose, and will be more valuable than First, it is of cardinal importance that the newspaper have a history worth they generally believe. University teach- honest research and honest writing. ers write badly, but they have a sense That, alas, can not be said of most of organization, and they will see as- dailies in the United States. Mere size pects of the subject that newspapermen and power are not proper criteria. We may miss. can say of a number of prominent dai- (Continued on page 519)

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 Foreign Bibliography 519 WAGENFUEHR,KURT. Rundfunkanstalten in Westdeutschland. DS 14:9 pp408-416 gehen ins Privatgeschuejt. FR 1959:8 pp Sept.-Third part of a survey by mail of 350-357 Aug.-This summer two signs- color advertising in the German daily cant contracts were signed by several Ger- press with statistical material, including a man broadcasting corporations and private &page supplement with color-printing firms to form a Commercial Television samples. Association which will produce tv film KRUEGER,R. Erfahrungen irn deutschen and entire programs. Zeitungsrotations-Farbdruck. DS 14:9 pp 437-444 Sept.-Recent experiences in Research Methods newspaper color printing in Germany-a FROEHNER,ROLF. Markrforschung und technical description. Meinungsforschung. WW 13: 17 pp622- MUENSTER,HANS A. Farbige Anzeigen 623 Sept. 1.-Market research and opinion in der Tagespresse. DS 14:9 pp398-408 research - different objectives, similar Sept.-Results of a survey by mail on methods. color advertising in the German daily STROTHMANN,K. H. Methodische Er- press. In part I business firms were inter- fahrungen der Produktionsgueter-Markt- viewed; in part 11, advertisers. forschung. A 35:9 pp646-649 Sept.-Re- cent experiments and refinements of meth- SCHMDT, KLAUSF. Der rnehrfarbige ods give a practical approach to market Zeitungsdruck in den USA. DS 14:9 pp research for industrial goods. 389-398 Sept.-The U.S. correspondent of Der Druckspiegel reports on multi-color Typography and Graphic Arts printing in the American daily press. BRETAO,WILEELM. Das bunte Bild in SCHROETER,PAUL. Mehr Schwung bei der Zeitung, technisch gesehen. ZV 56:18 der typographischen Gestaltung der Tages- pp922-929, 937 Sept. 15.Technical prob- zeitung. ZV 56:18 ~~1004-1006Sept. 15. lems of color pictures in German news- -Modem makeup needs better relations papers. between editors and typographers. Week- KOHLHAMMER,KURT. Die drucktech- end editions will be a good test ground nische Situation der farbigen Tageszeitung for newspaper design.

Historical Treatment of U.S. Journalism (Continued from page 422) In the fourth place, this association, nalism, could provide this review more it seems to me, could make one impor- easily and expertly than anyone else. tant contribution to the systematic cul- Such a quinquennial volume, written tivation of press history in the United with verve and penetration, would be States. It might do something to im- accepted by any publisher, and would prove current newspaper practice, and be sure of a large sale. Money needed a great deal to guide future historians, to support the research and pay the es- if every five years it published a critical sayists could readily be obtained from review, by regions, of the attitudes and one of several foundations. As these activities of the principal newspapers. volumes grew across the shelf, their im- One committee in each region-that is, pact on journalism, and their value to in say 10 areas of the country-could historians, sociologists, economists and be made responsible for the critical students of government would grow too. evaluations. The members of this asso- Finally, the historian should hang ciation, holding close relations with the principal newspapermen of their states, over his desk an amended version of regularly reading the important jour- the motto with which Joseph Pulitzer nals, and possessing a keen critical adorned his newsrooms: Honesty, Ac- sense of what is good and bad in jour- curacy, Honesty.

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