lic should know what is good for it.

The work of reporters has thus become confused with the work of
preachers, revivalists, prophets, and agitators. The current theory of
American newspaperdom is that an abstraction like the truth and a
grace-like fairness must be sacrificed whenever anyone thinks the
necessities of civilization require the sacrifice. To Archbishop
Whately's dictum that it matters greatly whether you put truth in the
first place or the second, the candid expounder of modern journalism
would reply that he put truth second to what he conceived to be the
national interest. Judged simply by their product, men like Mr. Ochs or
Viscount Northcliffe believe that their respective nations will perish
and civilization decay unless their idea of what is patriotic is
permitted to temper the curiosity of their readers.

They believe that edification is more important than veracity. They
believe it profoundly, violently, relentlessly. They preen themselves
upon it. To patriotism, as they define it from day to day, all other
considerations must yield. That is their pride. And yet what is this but
one more among myriad examples of the doctrine that the end justifies
the means? A more insidiously misleading rule of conduct was, I believe,
never devised among men. It was a plausible rule as long as men believed
that an omniscient and benevolent Providence taught them what end to
seek. But now that men are critically aware of how their purposes are
special to their age, their locality, their interests, and their limited
knowledge, it is blazing arrogance to sacrifice hard-won standards of
credibility to some special purpose. It is nothing but the doctrine that
I want what I want when I want it. Its monuments are the Inquisition
and the invasion of Belgium. It is the reason given for every act of
unreason, the law invoked whenever lawlessness justifies itself. At
bottom it is nothing but the anarchical nature of man imperiously
hacking its way through.

Just as the most poisonous form of disorder is the mob incited from high
places, the most immoral act the immorality of a government, so the most
destructive form of untruth is sophistry and propaganda by those whose
profession it is to report the news. The news columns are common
carriers. When those who control them arrogate to themselves the right
to determine by their own consciences what shall be reported and for
what purpose, democracy is unworkable. Public opinio