The Press for good or evil?

*THE WORKER*

Brisbane October 20, 1894.

THE EDITORIAL MILL.

Our Motto: “Socialism in our Time.”

There is no power so mighty for good or evil in any community as the Press. To be a factor for good it should be free in every sense of the word to criticise friends and foes alike in the interest of the public welfare. The moment it loses that freedom it becomes a source of evil, dreadful to contemplate. People of the English speaking race are won't to boast of the liberty of their press, and no doubt in years gone by a noble fight was fought to obtain that freedom. But to-day when Capitalism reigns it is a mistake for people to think that the press has that unlimited freedom which it declares itself to be possessed of, and because of this it is as well to understand the position of what may be called the newspaper industry.

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In nearly all branches of industry patriotiam takes a back seat. Profit is the primary concern of those who are engaged in it. The newspaper industry is not exempt from this rule, and with few exceptions the press of Queensland is run on industrial lines. The supervisor of the editorial “We” first considers how the industry can be best made pay dividends, and then moulds its ethics accordingly. Should the individual who writes the “We” object to this policy he knows that the supply of his particular kind of labour is unlimited, and not having a union behind him in 99 cases out of every 100 he continues to grind out leading articles to order. As Emerson pointedly puts it; “In the influential newspaper I discern no form; only some irresponsible shadow; oftener some moneyed corporation, or some dangler, who hopes, in the masks and robes of his paragraph, to pass for somebody.” This is no overdrawn statement, for it is a fact that those who are employed in the literary departments of most of the large newspapers in Australia are working for wages, and it is only reasonable to suppose that they would not refuse to give publicity to the thoughts of their employers when requested so to do. As for the country papers, there are such things as bills of sale and overdrafts, and capitalism is not very tolerant of any person or persons who oppose its interests if they can possibly be got at.

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The Press has done more harm to the people of Australia than all the droughts, floods, and strikes that have ever happened. Behind the leading articles is the self interest that is very often involved in speculations of the wildest character. Behind this again come the financial institutions, which are the favorite customers that bring grist to the newspaper mill. The more pleasing its policy is to the section of the community that controls these institutions the more likelihood there is of good dividends for the proprietary. Offend this section, and the grist, in the shape of advertisements are withdrawn from the paper. And not only this. In many instances the word is passed along to their clients to do likewise. Consequently the business department of the average newspaper endeavours to persuade the literary department not to offend its best customers.

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Take up the average newspaper and read the leading articles. Mixed up with grains of truth are blunders of audacity and dogmatism which very often chloroform the mind of the reader into the belief that they are infallible, that they could not possibly say what is wrong, and that they always advocate what is right and proper. Yet if all we hear now is true the land boom stands condemned before the bar of public opinion and who is more responsible for leading the people astray in that direction than the very newspapers that to-day claims all but infallibility for the “We” of their leading articles. No note of warning was sounded by them in time to save the people from the dangerous course they were then pursuing. On the contrary, they were led on to financial destruction through the lying puffs and advertisements that appeared in the very newpapers which to-day are trying to cover up that horrible trail of deception by an abuse of unionism and the Labour Party. There was very little unionism and no Labour Party in 1866. Yet in that year a financial crisis brought the people to a most deplorable condition. No newspaper gave a timely caution to save them from its effects. And notwithstanding that the former bitter experience should have a guide, the press of Queensland by its silence was accessory to bringing about the late land boom which entrapped the unwary and lured them on again to their ruin. The Press of Queensland was purposely wise only after the event.

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Again, if a man wishes to act honestly to himself and his family he will always try to live within his income. The same thing can be said as regards Govenments. “Those who go a borrowing go a sorrowing.” But the Press of Queensland thinks differently, for at one time or another it favoured nearly all the loans that now rest on the shoulders of the people like an incubus. Instead of advising the rulers of the people to behave like a wise and honest householder and live within the means at their disposal, it advocated the contrary, and for some occult reason is again making preparations to follow out the policy of borrow, boom, and burst. The metropolitan Press particularly appearing to act the part of touts for a few over-reached financiers and allowing the credit of the people to be gambled with, notwithstanding the fact that somewhere about £3,000,000 borrowed in their name is locked up in private banking institutions which ought to be available for use.

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There are many people in this province who are not by any means lovers of the Labour Party, but who know that these statements are not very far from the truth, and who also object to the present state of affairs. Ask them why they do not publicly say so and they will at once tell you; “We dare not, we are tied up and fear the Press. There may be a chance of our pulling through if we remain silent, but if we were to publicly protest the Press would write us down at the dictation of its masters behind the scenes, and there are no opposition dailies in Brisbane to take up the fight.” This is a most unfortunate state of affairs, for when there are no critics of the REAL Government amongst the daily papers of the metropolis of any country, the Government of that despotism. Capitalism has a close hold on most of the existing newspapers in Queensland. Those who control the metropolitan Press would very much like to see their investments become more profitable than they are at present, which is only natural. But people must remember that a desire like this, if it mounlds the policy of newspapers at particular times may not at the same time be the best policy to advocate for the whole community, which points to the advisability of establishing opposition dailies that will serve the people better than the present ones, and whose policy also will be to inflict injury on none, but on the contrary to exert such a fair criticism as will be for the benefit of all. 

C. S.