Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1895 — News, Not Fakes. [ARTICLE]

News, Not Fakes.

San Fr-ncisco Call. In fulfillment of the policy announced a few days ago, the “Call'’ has.disposed.af-all.the books it had for sale on theTcoupon system and has gone out of that trade. From this time forth we shall have nothing to do with fakes of any kind, and by J a fake we mean anything that is not legitimately included in the business of publishing the news of the day, advertisements of the business of the day, and such miscellaneous notes, comments and articles as are necessary to keep our readers posted on all current events of public interest. Our opposition to faking in jour nalisin is the outcome of a deepseated conviction that the system is not only derogatory to the dignity of a great new paper, but is prejudicial to its best interest and offensive to its intelligent readers. A trade, legitimate in itself, becomes a fake when it is undertaken not as a regular business, but as a mere device to catch pennies by deluding the public into a belief that they are getting something for nothing. The coupon is apparently a free gift to the reader of a newspaper, bat in reality it takes up space that should be given to news or legitimate advertising, and the fake scheme of which it is a part engages some of the attention, energies and capital of the paper that ought to be devoted exclusively to the gathering and the dissemination of news. It is, therefore, a deduction from the news value of the paper and a loss to those who look for the news, A man can not serve two masters. He cannot be a journalist aud a fakir at the same time. The editor who

1 resorts to fake gifts to get subscrb- | ers will soon resort to fakes to get news. When once the legitimate object of journalism is lost sight of and the publication of the news is regarded no longer as the chief object of his energy, it is an easy step j to sensationalism of every kind and to the complete abandonment of all I care for accuracy and truthfulness in I reporting events. By easy and inj evitable gradations the editor is transformed to the habitual fakir. ! He considers news no more than a , pansy blossom, and will resort to ! exaggeration and every other device I in either case or in both cases to catch the,’Attention of the vulgar ! and the nicklosof the unwarv. j The true rule of 1 business is for every man to stick to his own trade. 1 Let the book dealer sell" books and ; the florist sell flowers. They have | to pay rent, clerk hire and all the the Expenses of legitimate business, and should be free from fake competition. The pubiic will be better served in this way than it could be bv any other process, and, for ourselves, we will stick to it. When a man's feet slip on tho Icy sidewalk tho remarks lie makes r -neruily in dicutn that lie also had a slip of the owjue.