The Press: Poor Journalist

Heywood Broun, who like Saint Simeon, presides over the world from the head of a column—a column which many admire—last week launched an attack against two habitual journalists, Life and Fate:

“News won’t do as the sole commodity for any paper, because Life, said to be a great dramatist, is a most indifferent journalist. You cannot leave the contents of any daily publication to Fate, because so very often Fate falls down badly and comes to the office empty handed. There are days, of course, when Life turns out prodigious copy. Quakes sometimes come on the very afternoon that Kings are dying. Cyclones have attempted to crowd Babe Ruth out of his fair share of space by picking the very day on which he made two home runs as their own time to break loose and wreck a city. It is too bad that some of the news on busy days can’t be set in the refrigerator and saved up for display when happenings are duller. If there were closer co-operation between the morning papers this could be accomplished.”

He added a tribute to the late President Roosevelt, who, although Mr. Broun did not say so, apparently wassuperior to Life and Fate: “The Colonel never reached any great moral conviction except for the Monday morning papers. He was never fool enough to become articulate about public affairs of a Saturday, when his views would have to buck the football games, big fights at the Garden or doubleheaders, as the season warranted.”