The Shady Side of Fleet Street

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 756, 15 January 1954, Page 4

|The Shady Side of Fleet Street

S was to be expected, the Royal Tour is being reported extensively by Eng- | lish newspaper correspondents, and some parts of their dispatches have been cabled back from London for our own interest and edification. They have not been well received. There would perhaps be less indignation at the tone of these reports if we could read the good parts as well as the bad. It might even be possible to accept the view of one English columnist that we should grow thicker skins and "learn to laugh." In New Zealand, however, we are old-fash-ioned enough to believe that laughter in the wrong place and at the wrong time is bad manners. By all means let British people laugh at one another if they find their different social habits amusing, though it may be necessary to remember that ridicule is closer to insult than to humour. But English journalists could surely have been expected to understand that the Maoris are not yet their kinsmen, and are entitled to a forbearance that European New Zealanders would not expect for themselves. After all, the English people have had some experience of colonial affairs. They should know that native races are proud and sensitive, that even when they have attained equality with Europeans they can be emotionally insecure and need the support of their own traditions. There are undoubtedly features of Maori life today which need examination, and perhaps correction; but journalists trained by the English "popular" Press are not likely to have the answers. We in New Zealand have lived long enough with the Maoris to have found in them qualities which add something rich and rare to our national life. Their traditions may seem strange to visiting newspapermen, but to us they are neither strange nor _ synthetic. And it is a source of pride to us that the Maoris should have been ready to offer in their wholehearted way a welcome to the Queen which confirmed an older, historic pact of loyalty. If tribal politics were not entirely absent, we should know better than to expect the subtleties of racial out-

look to disappear overnight; and we should be able to see also that the differences merely emphasised the unity reached by Maori and Pakeha in their allegiance to the Crown. This loyalty was shown at Waitangi in traditional ceremonies, Good reporters would have described what they saw, without comment, and without the subtle coloration of phrase which is a concealed and dishonest comment. Unfortunately we must grow used to diluted reporting, for it is now widely practised overseas. And nothing is to be gained by condemning individuals. Correspondents whose "brilliant" dispatches are being sent from New Zealand are as much the victims of their newspapers as are the millions who read them. If they did not send the stories that are wanted, ‘others would be found to replace them. The proprietors and editors of newspapers with large circulations seem to believe that only a constant diet of sensation can satisfy their readers. Reporters are therefore encouraged to be bright and entertaining at all costs. Further, brightness and entertainment have acquired new meanings in some parts of Fleet Street: they are sought most frequently. in stories which dwell on sordid behaviour, or which keep people in a simmer of indignation. If truth is damaged in the process, or mischief is done, the policy is defended by glib references to the freedom of the Press. These practices are not much liked in New Zealand, where journalists are still taught that "comment is free, facts are sacred," and that comment is irresponsible unless the facts have been tested and verified. It would be foolish to condemn journalism sweepingly in a country which produces the Manchester Guardian and_ other newspapers of great integrity. But we have lately seen examples of the cheaper journalism which we can judge from our own knowledge and experience. And having seen what mischief it cam do, it is natural to wonder if Britain, in the midst of her present colonial difficulties, would not be _ better served if mewspapers speaking to millions could return to princivles which sustain the freedom they are now abusing.