Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/430

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
390
HISTORY OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM

them. Every one, however, was so important that each deserves discussion somewhat more in detail.


ADVERTISING ETHICS ADVANCED

The first advertising advance was made when the immoral personal advertisement was thrown into the hellbox the technical name in the newspaper office for the receptacle in which rubbish and other waste matter is deposited. Previously such advertisements formed practically a directory of the houses of ill-fame to be found hi the red-lighted streets of the city tenderloin. In 1907 the United States District Attorney forced one newspaper to pay a fine of about $30,000 for publishing such obscene matter in its advertising columns devoted to "personals." The Daily News and The Tribune, of Chicago, were among the leaders to exclude such advertising, which in that city had been so cunningly designed that it deceived many readers as to its true character. The stylebook of several newspapers now contains paragraphs about classified advertisements which are based upon regulations adopted by The Chicago Daily News and which specify kinds of advertising which under no condition may be accepted for publication and about others which must be rejected unless O.K.'d by a responsible member of the advertising staff who has made a personal investigation of the advertiser. Another ethical advance was the exclusion from the newspapers of what The Journal, of Minneapolis, called "the filthy, dangerous, fraudulent medicinal, and near-medicinal advertising." A few newspapers have gone so far as to exclude all medicinal advertising. Others, like The North American, of Philadelphia, accept no medicinal advertising which would promote a drug-forming habit, or which guarantees to cure an incurable disease, such as cancer, etc. Many conflicting opinions exist about the advertising of patent medicines. The code of ethics of the better newspapers on this point suggests that the newspaper may insert the advertising of any patent medicine which the publisher of the paper is willing to use in his own home. The suggestion of medical societies, that the press should exclude all patent medicine advertising, is not well accepted. A newspaper is inclined to believe that physicians are not en-