The Northern Newspaper press.
--About two years ago a volume of some four hundred was published in
Philadelphia, entitled "
Our Press Gang," by
Lambert,
A. Wilmen,
ex-editor, author of "
The Life of De Sato," and other works.
This volume proposed to give "a complete exposition of the corruptions and crimes of journalism," a subject which it treats minutely and in detail.--We have never heard that a single suit for what was brought against the author.
Indeed, the
Northern press seemed only too happy to let the matter drop as quietly as possible.
The of
Mr. Wilmen, therefore, may be taken as confessed, corroborated as they are by what every one knows of the character of patriotism.
From the peculiarities of newspapers literature set forth in these are may imagine how low the intellectual and moral place whose requirements journalism may make such a torment.
We
Mr. Wilmen beings fourteen charges against the newspaper press of his section, either of which is enough to entitle it to the . These charges are, in brief, its tyrannical exercise of power and authority; that it is controlled in great measure by foreigners; that it is hostile to free institutions; that it systematically misleads the public judgment in relation to matters of the greatest national importance, that it is the zealous and interested advocate of every form of imposture, fraud, and plander; that it fosters immorality and vice, encourages official corruption and malfeasance, uses its influence to secure the appointment of bad and irresponsible men to important political stations, and persuades the people to submit quietly to extortions and oppressions; that it unwarranted interferes with the administration of public justice, gives circulation to groundless and malicious slanders, provokes ruffians to violations of the law, debases the literature of the country, &c., &c.
Mr. Wilmen not only makes these voluminous and terrible charges against the
Northern press, but he proves every count in the indictment beyond the possibility of contradiction.
To give a tenth part of his illustration would be to fill every column of this journal.
It is impossible to read this keen and minute analysis of the daily newspaper press of the
Northern section and wonder at the universal insecurity and corruption.
