Views, Not News

In the face of national policy devoted to building up a desire for cooperation between the United States and Russia, leading Boston newspapers have recently shown the dangerous inclination to promote anti-Russian feeling; dangerous because it is insidiously developed in news stories and not straightforwardly in editorials. Last Sunday night a Patriot's Day banquet was held in Boston. The Governor of Massachusetts, a Right Reverend Monseigneur of the Catholic Church, a Harvard professor, and a chaplain from the Harvard Army Chaplain School gave speeches. The Chaplain's address, no more outstanding than the rest, was a stern outcry against slackening of civilian morale and a warning that while we may join efforts with Russia we must realize that politically communism and democracy are not compatible.

Next day the Governor's speech was relegated to the background. Out came headlines, proclaiming "Patriot's Day Speaker Flays Communism." One article led off with the false indirect quotation that the chaplain "condemned an expediency which was muzzling those who realized that communism was as great a threat to democracy as is Nazism."

This is an excellent example of the power of the press--for destruction. By twisting the words of the speaker, by adding a few, the reporter is able to come up with a completely warped story, an editorial rather than a news report. The chaplain did not say, and, by his own pronouncement, does not believe that we should regard Communistic Russia as a threat. He merely argues that democracy should be carefully safeguarded as our way of government.

Boston newspaper were among the last to give up the old isolationist line. They have long indulged in attacking Russia at the least provocation. To editorialize on their editorial pages is their privilege. But when they make use of the news column, supposedly devoted to exposition of fact, to give their readers mistaken impressions about the beliefs of public and church leaders, they do more than cripple the national program at a crucial time. They become a threat to democracy itself, because they dilute the value of a free press.