ends. In one notorious example in a large city in the Middle West, reporters and editors were furnished with a list of certain business enterprises that were not to be mentioned in any unfavorable connection in the news, because the owner of the paper was financially interested in these enterprises. Although men and corporations have a right to present their side of any case through the medium of the newspapers, and although there may be no valid objection to the ownership or control of newspapers by men with political ambitions or by corporations, it is plain that such ownership and control are fraught with danger to public welfare by reason of the public opinion thus created.
Making News "Yellow." "Yellow journalism," it is conceded, has been developed largely by furnishing the readers with sensational phases of the day's events. In order to make the everyday news seem more startling, large headlines with bold-face type printed in black, green, and red have blazoned forth the striking facts of the news. Sensational news stories of all kinds have constantly been "played up" prominently. When the facts were not particularly unusual or striking, they have been "colored" to seem so. This "sensationalizing" of the news has been the result of an effort to attract large numbers of readers and by enlarging circulation to increase profits. The effect on the readers of this giving over of a large part of the news columns to sensational news, and this "coloring" of news to make it more sensational, is, of course, to give them a distorted idea of current events. To what extent this distorted view of life affects the relation of these readers to society is the question to be determined in analyzing the effects of "yellow journalism."
Three Causes. The three principal reasons for suppressing or coloring news, as we have seen, therefore,
