realm where only a partial guarantee is afforded by the press it self and where the material must be considered " on its merits.”
These limited guarantees are connected with the business ad ministration of the press and the office management; the desire
for news in order to increase the circulation and the desire to increase the circulation in order to attract advertisers make a
distinct limitation in both directions. At one extreme is the tendency to over-emphasize sensational newsand to “ play it up ” to such an extent that all sense of proportion is lost. 45 At the other extreme is the important indirect limitation that concerns the source of news. In every community there are individuals who are occasional sources of news, - they may be trustees of colleges about to elect a new president; or members of a board of
public works looking for a new superintendent; or delegates to a religious association that may decide to try a local clergyman
for heresy; or leading politicians who are to determine the incorporation in party platforms of certain much discussed planks; but whatever the important items of news in their possession , they are persons to be conciliated . Every local paper wishes to be the first to announce the important decision, and hence it is extremely careful to say nothing against these in
dividuals or against their interests. The press is thus limited by its own desire for news. There is also , especially in the press of small places, the tacit understanding that certain news affecting certain families will
not be published . Here, as at various other points, the question enters the realm of ethics. The suppression of much news is often a genuine advantage to the historian since its publication can add
nothing of importance to a study of the period or of the com munity. Moreover, while the modern newspaper may often seem cruel to the living in its fierce denunciations of men who
differ from it, it usually adheres to the spirit and the letter of the old injunction de mortuis nil nisi bonum . 45 In a recent poison case one large daily had twelve reporters at work on it , while another paper in the same city gave it but half a column . One
paper was charged with " sensationalism " and the other with “ suppressing the news.” Neither charge was apparently true. The sense of proportion in the two papers varied , and the event proved that the paper giving the less space to it had the better judgment.
