THE GALLED JADE WINCES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8346, 5 February 1913, Page 6

THE GALLED JADE WINCES

The squatters’ organ, which has played the part of the swaggering bully unchallenged for some years, winces sharply under our criticism of the methods of self-styled Reform and onr defence of an illustrious statesman like Sir Joseph Ward from the disparagement of a supercilious and insufferable political antagonist. Vituperation is the recognised weapon of this type of journalism, and therefore it does not surprise us to find that our moderatelyworded defence of an absent man, written in the best of taste, is coarsely assailed as a “ vulgar and violent assault.” However, abuse is no Argument, and it is interesting to discover that tho toughened hide of the squatters’ organ is still sensitive to tho lash of criticism. There are newspapers and newspapers, owing their existence to divers causes, but the great majority of them are characterised by independence and inspired by admirable ideals for the public welfare. Then, again, there are exceptions. With a consciousness of the honourable history and glorious traditions of the British press, however, the independent and unfettered journalist ox good principle is occasionally made ashamed of his professional surroundings. There is, it is recognisedj nothing more debased and degraded in the mixed world of journalism than a newspaper that is established with the gold of any one class or powerful interest to serve the personal or political ends of that particular class alone, and, by methods of misrepresentation and slander, to destroy its political opponents and their private character. There is, at the same time, no hired position on the press more despised than that of writers who are content to earn a living by the contemptible process of assailing and systematically disparaging the reputations of public men, vilifying their good names, and even blackening their domestic lives and relations at the dictation of an unscrupulous employer who is willing to pay liberally if tho detestable work is effectively done. Tho envenomed pen of a hired writer can stab just as mortally as tbo stiletto of the hired assassin.