Much of this personal journalism has passed both in America and in England and its passing has been regretted, but the Evening Post notes that "laments over the passing of 'personal journalism' usually take no account of the personal rancor that went along with it. A defence of the lurid rhetoric that regularly resulted might be made on the ground of its unconscious humor, which was often better than our made-to-order sort."[1]
But exceptions even at an early time were found. An English traveler notes: "I have read a paragraph in a New York paper which announced the publication of another opposition paper which would take quite a different line in politics, and said, that the editor of the new organ was a man of so great ability, that it, the old established paper, could not doubt of the success it wished him . This was not the greeting which our established papers give to new adventurers."[2]
As a rule, however, the newspaper considered its own editorials white while those of its opponents were black,—no shadows mitigated the noonday brilliance of the one and no lights illumined the midnight blackness of the other. The editorial was a guarantee of the personal views of the editor, but it was not a guarantee that these same opinions were widely prevalent. How far they reflected public opinion can not be measured with any degree of certainty. Subscription lists are not an accurate gauge since so many influences induce subscriptions, nor can the votes cast on public questions accurately record public opinion since the exercise of the suffrage has always been limited by restrictions imposed by religion, property, residence, education, race, or sex.
During this period of personal journalism not only was the editor identified with the paper, but the paper was identified with the community. The dedication of two volumes of the editorial writings of Harvey W. Scott reads: "To the people of the Pacific Northwest who sustained the newspaper work of Harvey W. Scott, during forty-five years, for the spread of intelligence and
- ↑ The New York Evening Post points its statement with "a specimen, rare in our time, of this style of composition, "drawn from the Macon, Georgia, Telegraph and the Albany, Georgia, Herald .—September 26, 1914 .
- ↑ J. Richard Beste, The Wabash: or Adventures of an English Gentleman's Family in the Interior of America.—I, 289.
