The mere body of this ugly matter overwhelms the
rare utterances of good men; the sneering, the selfish, and the
cowardly are scattered in broad sheets on every table, while the
antidote, in small volumes, lies unread upon the shelf. I have
spoken of the American and the French, not because they are so much
baser, but so much more readable, than the English; their evil is
done more effectively, in America for the masses, in French for the
few that care to read; but with us as with them, the duties of
literature are daily neglected, truth daily perverted and
suppressed, and grave subjects daily degraded in the treatment.
The journalist is not reckoned an important officer; yet judge of
the good he might do, the harm he does; judge of it by one instance
only: that when we find two journals on the reverse sides of
politics each, on the same day, openly garbling a piece of news for
the interest of its own party, we smile at the discovery (no
discovery now!) as over a good joke and pardonable stratagem.
Lying so open is scarce lying, it is true; but one of the things
that we profess to teach our young is a respect for truth; and I
cannot think this piece of education will be crowned with any great
success, so long as some of us practise and the rest openly approve
of public falsehood.
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