ALTHOUGH THE ACCUSATION that the advertisers exercise control over the
press is less often heard now than it was twenty years ago, it is still occa- sionally made; and I have no doubt that some of the readers of the Express, the Mail, the Herald and the Sketch made it when they noticed that brand names mentioned in the Commons debate were carefully excised from the Express, the Mail, the Herald and the Sketch. That this is the fault of the newspapers, not of the advertisers, was shown by the fact that the other papers felt free to report the names. In my experience there is rarely an office rule that names must not be mentioned; but there is often an unwritten con- vention that rude references to advertisers should not be mentioned if they can be avoided. This con- vention helps to create the suspicion that the press is nobbled. If it is, it is by the newspaper proprietors themselves. * * •
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