Praise and Panning from Britain

"A regular reading of serious British newspapers never leaves the impression of fundamental issues still unresolved. In contrast, the American press reflects a society in which first principles are actively open to dispute. There is no question which makes the most stimulating journalism." At least there is no question in the mind of British Journal ist Henry Fairlie as he considers the prose and content of the U.S. press in the current issue of Encounter.

After long service on such national newspapers as the London Times, Observer and Sunday Telegraph, Fairlie discovered that the local, community-based papers of the U.S. were a welcome change of pace. Having spent seven months in the U.S. last year, he decided that the future of U.S. newspapers is bright, "partly as a result of the pressure of the reading public. Much more aware of the problems of urban life and of the inadequate response of political leaders, the readers want aggressive journalism. The will must be there in publisher or editor; but the economic base is strong, and there is every reason why the local newspaper in America should revive, as a public voice, in the next decade. As an institution, the press must draw its vitality through its own roots, spread throughout the country. And the local newspaper can, if it wishes, not only live, but lead."

Shoveling Flakes. After painting that encouraging overall picture, Fairlie next turns to a more detailed examination of "the great, internationally known newspapers"-- specifically the New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. The Trib,* as he read it, was entirely unworthy of its once lofty position." In its editorials (as in almost every other important part of the paper, except its sport pages, Eugenia Sheppard and its team of columnists) the Herald Tribune has to all intents and purposes abdicated. It has ceased to be a newspaper in anything but name."

The Times gets off only a fraction more easily. "By including so much, it sometimes obscures to the point where it might as well be omitting. But first find the story-- itself a task demanding unfaltering and intrepid application; then struggle through the opening paragraph-- a grave test of nerve and skill; and finally master the rest of the story paragraph by paragraph--an exercise requiring something near to gallantry; and one will, I believe, be as well informed as by reading any other newspaper, and sometimes much better. But there is no reason why it should be made so difficult. Only the Times shovels every flake of information at its readers, in the trust that they can be their own snowplows."

A Formed Taste. The Wall Street Journal receives far higher grades. "Of all the newspapers which I am discussing, the Journal is the only one which, with intelligence, polemic, candor and wit, questions the way in which the world is going. If others like to 'side with history,' the Journal impudently, but intelligently, challenges it." Fairlie warmly compliments the reporting and writing of the Journal's daily background news stories--a piece of praise that is the sole exception to his general contention that American journalists do not know how to write. Even so, for everyday reading, Fairlie's personal favorite is the Washington Post, "the most promising major newspaper in the eastern U.S.--in spite of all its defects."

"Although I personally disagree with many of its attitudes," says Fairlie, "the Post appears to me always to offer the clearest rational defense of them that is possible. It is one of the few important papers in the U.S. which is not frightened of the power which America now holds, but continues to examine every exercise of that power."

Fairlie became so enamored of the Post that when he returned to England, he had the paper delivered every day. "The postman, laboring under the load, did not like it. But I formed a taste for American newspapers." By and large, he says, U.S. and British papers reflect their countries: "One earnestly involved in the business of power, the other resigned to watching from the sidelines."

*The further publication of which waited last week on continuing negotiations between striking unions and the newly merged World Journal Tribune, Inc.

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