By continuously
pondering on the horrors of crime and vice as depicted in the
newspapers, the American people are roused to such a hatred of evil that
some editors receive a salary of $100,000 a year.
Oddly enough, the American people freely criticise their newspapers. One
of the commonest charges is that their editors write with great haste
and little accurate information. But, Herr Grundschnitt argued, it is
unfair to insist that newspapers shall be both forceful and accurate.
It is true that the editors who supply the American people with their
opinions think fast and write fast, but it is absurd to maintain that as
a class they are unreasonably set in their own beliefs. Editors, as a
matter of fact, change their opinions every little while. In such cases
they usually have no difficulty in proving that, while their present
views are right, their previous views were also right. This makes for
consistency. Nor is there any reason for maintaining, as is often done,
that editors are restive under criticism. The professor declared that
there are very few newspapers in the United States that will refuse to
print a letter from any one who believes that the paper in question is
the only one in town with courage and honesty enough to tell the truth
and that it is the best newspaper in the country at the price.
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