the personal enthusiasm and devotion of the Troops, is enor mously exaggerated in the London papers. Their coldness was,
to me, astonishing so much so , as to be, under all the circum
stances, almost irritating.” 32 Adverse criticism , even wholesome criticism , is tacitly avoided by the press itself or is suppressed by government regulation . Criticism of government action that in times of peace would be deemed entirely legitimate is considered in time of war pernicious and destructive. “ Not a paper in the East printed an elaborate
communication to Congress from a lawyer, Amos Pinchot, who had collated big concerns' reports of war profits. He was called a
pro-German pacifist and his researches suppressed .” 33 The
critical faculty itself is held in abeyance and the pressmay accept as authoritative, documents that, under normal conditions, would not bear close scrutiny,34 and publish reports whose ac
curacy has not been investigated . Labouchere writes that a Paris paper contained “ a wonderful account of what Mr. Lynch
had seen when with the Prussians. Meeting him this evening, I
asked him whether it was true. He told me that he had already been to the newspaper to protest against its appearance, as every statement in it was destitute of foundation . He could ,
however , get no redress ; the editor or his locum tenens told him that one of their reporters had given it to him , and that he knew
nothing more about it. This is an instance of the reckless mode
in which the business of journalism is conducted here." 35 The numbing of the critical faculty has its counterpart in the general attitude of suspicion that prevails. The press in time of
war becomes the channel through which suspicions and rumors
find an outlet and in the absence of authentic facts these are widely circulated and in turn lead to hysteria, as this again leads to suspicion and rumor - and thus the vicious circle is completed .
But the limitation on the authoritativeness of the press in time of war does not stop here. A singularly astute analysis of 32 R . C . Lehmann , Charles Dickens as Editor, p . 153. 33 An Ex- City Editor, “Newspapers in Wartime," The Public, March 16 , 1918, 21: 334 - 337. 34 In September , 1918, the press in general accepted the so - called Sisson documents issued by the Committee on Public Information , but the New
York Evening Post questioned the authoritativeness of a part of them . 35 Diary of the Besieged Resident, pp. 117– 118 , October 13, 1870 .
