THE FUNCTIONS OF A NEWS PAPER.
The following occurs in the speech of an attorney in a suit for libel There has grown up a sort of common law of obligation, recognised mutually by the Press and the people, by which the people expect that the Press, as distributors of useful intelligence, shall inform them, as well who is to be suspected as who is to he confided in And a newspaper, as a garnerer and distributor of news, is a public monitor, and it is its duty to admonish the people against frauds and shams, and impostures and dishonesties. It is to be a beacon as well ns a guide ; and whenever a public newspaper, through its diversified appliances for tho collection and distribution of information, discovers anywhere in public life and public avocations, whether it be a lawyer, or a clergyman, or a physician—a man who, instead of seeming the public welfare by honourable methods and practices, simply prowls about in the backyard of profession, and uses the means and instrumentalities which honourable title gives him to pander to his own lust or avarice, or any other vile passion, and that p:ip°r fails 1o send out some admonitory voice and some signal of warning, it is recreant to every principal if duty and responsibility, and should be stigmatised by the public it pretends to serve.’
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Bibliographic details
Dunstan Times, Issue 931, 20 February 1880, Page 3
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227THE FUNCTIONS OF A NEWS PAPER. Dunstan Times, Issue 931, 20 February 1880, Page 3
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