organization from the standpoint of the historian . He is not immediately concerned with the questions as to whether the Associated Press is a monopoly ; whether " the United Press
scored an epochal scoop ” in announcing the death of Pius X in advance of its rivals, how far it was responsible for the false
dispatch sent November 7, 1918, prematurely announcing the signing of the armistice, and whether " it has revolutionized
journalism ;" whether the International News Service should be coerced into giving up the field ; or whether the Sun Printing and
Publishing Association was justified in protesting against the course of action taken by other associations. But he is deeply
concerned to know whether news-gathering associations furnish reliable news, whether they suppress such information as they
do not wish to have circulated, whether the news reported is biased , distorted , juggled, falsified, or misrepresented, or whether it is fair and truthful. The historian is indebted to news-collect
ing organizations more than to any other single source for the information published in the press, — what guarantees do they
afford that this information can be accepted without question and that important news is not suppressed ? The Associated Press, as the oldest, largest, and most far
reaching of these agencies in America , has been most in the public eye and the greatest number of criticisms have been directed against it. These charges have been that it is a monop
oly , that it caters to a capitalistic press, that it suppresses the news, and that its reports are biased or unfair. The charge that the Associated Press is a monopoly is a con
fusing one since it may imply that it is a commercial monopoly in the sense of making excessive profits through controlling the news, or it may imply that it is a monopoly through controlling
the market for news and preventing the formation of other news collecting organizations. That the Association is not a com mercial monopoly must be self-evident since it makes no profits
whatsoever and they can not therefore be " excessive.”
The
contention that the Associated Press has been a violator of the Federal Anti- Trust Act was held to be unwarranted by Attorney General Gregory in an opinion given March 12, 1915 , after a careful and exhaustive scrutiny of the object and scope of
