s statements command
the confidence of the reader. If a reporter writes that the wreck he has
just visited was the greatest in the history of railroading, or the
bride the most beautiful ever joined in the bonds of holy wedlock before
a hymeneal altar, or the flames the most lurid that ever lit a midnight
sky, the reader merely snickers and turns to a story he can believe.
The value of understatement cannot be overestimated. Probably the
majority of the people of the United States are suspicious anyway of the
truth of what they read in the newspapers. Hence, if one must sin on the
side of accurate valuation of news, let him err in favor of
understatement rather than exaggeration. Then when he is forced by
actual facts to resort to huge figures, his readers will believe him.
Such a policy, consistently adhered to, will always win favor for a
paper and a reporter. And that the best papers have learned this is
proved by the fact that they no longer tolerate inaccuracy of statement
or unverified information in their columns.

=126. "Editorializing."=--One other caution must be given in the cause
of accuracy, that of the necessity of presenting news from an unbiased
standpoint, of eliminating as far as possible the personal equation,--in
other words, of avoiding "editorializing." The news columns are the
place for the colorless presentation of news. No attempt is, or should
be, made there to influence public opinion. That function is reserved
for the editorial columns, and the reporter must be careful not to let
his personal views color the articles he writes. The following story was
written for a small Wisconsin paper by a rabid political reporter:

| =THOMAS MORRIS IN TOWN= |
| |
|Thomas Morris, lieutenant governor of this state and|
|candidate for the United States senate, was in |
|Appleton this morning and spent the day in Outagamie|
|county shaking hands with those who would. But few |
|would shake. He wanted to speak while here, but the |
|enlightened citizens of this city were right in not |
|letting him. Peter Tubits was his chief pilot |
|through the county. |

Needless to say, this story was not printed.

=127. Newspaper Policies.=--Even though it may seem--and in a measure
is--in contradiction to what has just been said about accuracy and
editoriali