Abstract

The Press and The International Situation

The article discusses the role of press in dealing with the international situation. For the press to abdicate its function of guiding the formation of public judgment upon the basis of principles and facts is to serve the public ill. In war time a popular theory is that there must be complete abatement of independent thinking on the part of editors. The question before the press is how to bring about moral responsibility in the moulders of our public opinion, and how to keep them free from governmental domination-nothing more and nothing less. In order that the newspapers may exercise the corrective and critical influence which those wise statesmen considered essential, the gathering and presentation of news must be absolutely independent of politicians, officeholders, and censorships.