When the next great war comes,
newspapers will be the chief cause of it. And for mere profit,
that's the worst. There are newspaper proprietors in every country,
who would slaughter half mankind for the pennies of the half who
were left, without caring a fraction of a penny whether they had
preached war for a truth or a lie."
"But doesn't a newspaper simply echo the opinions and feelings of
its public?"
"I'm afraid it manufactures opinion, and stirs up feeling. Consider
how very few people know or care anything about most subjects of
international quarrel. A mere handful at the noisy centre of things
who make the quarrel. The business of newspapers, in general, is to
give a show of importance to what has no real importance at all--
to prevent the world from living quietly--to arouse bitterness
when the natural man would be quite different."
"Oh, surely you paint them too black! We must live, we can't let the
world stagnate. Newspapers only express the natural life of peoples,
acting and interacting."
"I suppose I quarrel with them," said Piers, once more subduing
himself, "because they have such gigantic power and don't make
anything like the best use of it."
"That is to say, they are the work of men--I don't mean," Irene
added laughingly, "of men instead of women. Though I'm not sure that
women wouldn't manage journalism better, if it were left to them.
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