Press to support it.12 That success had been slight in avoiding
even the semblance of connection between the English Govern ment and the press seems evident from a later judgment that
" journalism
is not an independent fourth estate, as it is some
times described ; it is a 'mere appendage of the House of Com mons'.” 13 Recent writers have pressed the point still farther and have found a still more ominous development in the control
ling influence the prime minister has come to exert in the House of Commons and in his consequent heirship to a controlling
influence over a large part of the press.14
The gift of conspicuous honors to members of the press has not been confined to the governments of the West. Titles and orders of nobility have been the coin of the realm with which the Sultan has in Turkey secured immunity from criticism .15 The financial, as well as the official and the social, rewards that come to the press through party support can not be ignored. The
thick and thin supporters of party issues often openly seek and are awarded printing contracts and political advertising.16
Edward Porritt has shown how in Canada the patronage of the Dominion Government has been bestowed on the newspapers that supported the Liberal Party. This patronage has been specially lucrative in the advertising of the Intercolonial Rail way, of the Departments of Agriculture and of Immigration , and
in the printing of official notices.17 This desire for party favor must check the authoritativeness of the press in so far as it prevents a newspaper from criticizing
adversely any action of the political party to which it is indebted for political preferment, or leads it to suppress facts , the publica 12 The letters of both Canning and his secretary are given in the Auto biography of William Jerdan, IV , 159– 164. 13 “ Politics and the Press," Fraser 's Magazine, July , 1875 , 92 : 41- 50 .
14 A . G . Gardiner, " The Twilight of Parliament,” Atlantic Monthly , August, 1921, 128 : 248 – 255. 15 Ahmed Emin , The Press in Turkey , p . 83. 16 “ The country press in Republican territory has been, from the time of the Civil War, tied fast to the party machine by the county printing contracts and by cessions of county postmasterships to the editor.” _ G . K .
Turner, “ Manufacturing Public Opinion,” McClure's Magazine, July , 1912, 39: 316 - 327 .
17 E . Porritt, " The Value of Political Editorials,” Atlantic Monthly , Janu ary , 1910 , 105: 62-67.
