know
made, “ It takes courage to tell the reader that plenty of things
happen every day which are none of his business.” 17 It may also take a comprehension of the organization of the Associated Press to appreciate that whatever its shortcomings may be,
suppression of news by it is absolutely unthinkable. It exists to collect and to disseminate news, — to suppress news is to commit suicide. Not all of the news it supplies is presumably printed by a single member of the Associated Press , - its members are free to pick and choose what they publish . If news is “ sup
pressed,” it is not at the fountain head .
So keenly has the Associated Press felt this criticism that comes so trippingly from the tongue that in 1913 it welcomed the opportunity of bringing a suit for criminal libel against the editor and the cartoonist of a monthly magazine which had charged it with the suppression of facts . Previous charges of this nature had been made on the floor of Congress where those
making them had been immune, or they had been so carefully made as to permit escape from the penalties of libel, or they
had been voluntarily retracted . After two years, however, the case was dismissed by the court.18 As far as the contention of
the Associated Press has been concerned, not a single case of alleged wilful suppression of the news has been proved .
That the correspondents of the Associated Press commit errors of judgment the Association itself is the first to recognize. It is possible for all persons to be wise after the event, and in
one or two conspicuous cases the small beginnings of what sub sequently proved to be important matters were not noted in the Associated Press dispatches. Questions that at the time were
believed to have only a local import afterwards proved to be of of the trouble . In reality , the Associated Press had sent more than 93,000
words concerning it to the New York press and about sixty columns in regard to it were printed . — Letter of M . E . Stone to the Atlantic Monthly,
August 1 , 1914 , “ M . E . S ." His Book, pp . 273 - 279, and W . G . Bleyer, supra . The pros and cons of the Associated Press are considered by Gregory
Mason , " A Criticism ," and by George Kennan, “ A Defense ,” in The Outlook , May 30, 1914, 107: 237– 240, 249 -250 ; an editorial defense is given in The Outlook , July 18, 1914 , 107 : 631 -632.
17 W . P . Hamilton, “ The Case for the Newspapers,” Atlantic Monthly , May, 1910, 105: 646 –654. 18 The indictment was filed December 2 , 1913, and the case dismissed December 1, 1915.
