PROPAGANDA AND THE PRESS
[To the Editor of Tiu SPEcTArou.1 Sin,—Mr. Hammond's excellent article on the dangers of modern propaganda, which you published in a recent issue, was timely and true. Here, no doubt, the Press is not obliged to print all or any of the stuff served out to it, but the temptation to do so is always great and sometimes irresistible, especially when editors arc not fully conscious of their duty to the public.
We take pride in the freedom of our Press. But that freedom implies a willingness to hear both sides and a reluct- ance to suppress unwelcome facts, and these qualities, which The Spectator has always manifested to a remarkable degree, are, 1 fear, too often regarded as childish and unpractical in the " new " journalism. 1 had occasion the other day to write to one of the oldest and most reputable of London journals—not The Times•—to correct some fundamental errors of fact in an account of an interview with a man of some repute on a question of public interest. To my surprise, I was told that my letter could not be published because the editor did not agree with it. The misstatements, which inci- dentally do an injustice to certain individuals, remain uncor- rected. This, in my view, is a deliberate misuse of the freedom of the Press; freedom implies duties as well as rights. And a Press that refuses to print inconvenient facts is no safe defence against the wiles of the official propagandist.—I enclose my
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