The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, July 4, 1912. PRESS AND POLITICIANS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1065, 4 July 1912, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, July 4, 1912. PRESS AND POLITICIANS.

The politician is so dependent on the press that it is a constant surprise to anyone who understands that the press is the politician’s lifeblood that he should quarrel with it. It is particularly true of the average politician in New Zealand that without the skilled help of the press (for as a rule he lacks skill of his own) he would never emerge from the chrysalis of private mediocrity into the butterfly of press-aided politics. At the moment Parliament is engaged in making remarks. Apart from the official report of these more or less valuable remarks (which nobody reads outside Parliament) the nation knows nothing of politicians except per medium of the despised reporter. The despised reporter is the person who renders into understandable English the verbal homolitics of politicians, who sit for twelve or fourteen hours sifting the awful chaff from the almost undisceruable grain, and who really talks to the people represented by the M.P. The success or failure of the M.P., not to speak of the Minister, is in exact ratio to the notice the press takes of him. The press has only to be perfectly silent about the Hon, Mr So-and-so and the Hon. Mr So au-so must arrange for a political funeral. Politicians, if they know anything (and perhaps 5 per cent, are of normal understanding) know this. Now and then a mediocrity whom some unhappy reporter has helped into Parliament kicks wildly at the press, his guide, schoolmaster and source of information. He has even been known to name pressmen in a wild diatribe against the reason of his existence. This sort of person is to be compared with the fruit that quarrels with its parent tree. In Australia an absurd law exists which insists that all newspaper articles on political subjects during the currency of an election shall be signed by the writer. Thus, say, a dozen men of the Labour persuasion, aud none of whom art over the mediocrity line, destroyed the anonymity of the newspaper article, aud of course grossly insulted aud humiliated a profession which is the sheet anchor of the political ignoramus. A case is proceeding at the present time against a great Australian paper which published unsigned articles in connection with a by-election, and was fined. It is fortunately true that the Australian bench si not tied to the apron strings of a Labour caucus, and that the High Court, to which ,

an appeal is to be taken, will decide whether a heinous crime has been committed. The cessation of political reports means, at any time, the cessation of a Parliamentary sitting. This has been proved in Australian States, when gallery reporters have struck. The Australian press is particularly strong in cash and in influence, and it might take the just reprisal of refusing to report the bleatings ol politicians, or sending men to the galleries to catch the occasional wail on the point of the pencil. There is a rumour current in New Zealand that the press may be kicked into line with the Australian press, and be forced to attach the writers’ names to political articles during elections. The politician is such a thin-skinned animal that he must have every reference to himself carefully buttered. The Australasian press has got into the reprehensible habit ot throwing bouquets at any politician who belongs to the partisupported by the paper which throws the bouquets, and is then directly responsible iorthe poverty ot representation with which Australasia is plagued. In the present stale of party politics, neither the party politician nor the party pressman dare tell the truth, and the whole political atmosphere reeks with lalsehood. When the politician seeks to impose new restrictions on the press, he at once acknowledges his vapidity and weakness. If he feels annoyed with the press he might pass an act making it illegal to report the proceedings of Parliament, or the doings ol politicians. Under such a system only the politicians o! worth would survive. The mediocrities, robbed of their spine, blood, and marrow, won lei wilt

and die. The inbred instinct c: the press to “give a man a fair deal” has given us polit:c:ar.s many of whom would be hopelessly out of it without the k;r.c aid of printer’s ink. This la.-t type of non-entity it is who gthes at his best friend and master.

[Since the above 'was in print, a telegram states that during the no-confidence debate in the House last evening, the Hon- Laurenson indicated that Government intended to bring down a Bill providing that all newspaper articles written at election times should be signed by the writers ot the articles.]