The Famous Ferguson Case1932

Martin Collins:
This newspapering is a strange business. Grocers, for instance, sell dried apples and dry goods merchants sell gingham. But, we're selling two intangible commodities: one is news and the other is public service. It's pretty hard some times to tell if a story is news or just plain snooping into people's private affairs. That's when you get disgusted. And then you go out and do something that you know is a public service. You dig up some story about a ship sinking because her owners sent her to sea without repairs and you put the guilty men in jail. Or, you do a series about conditions in the coal fields and force Congress to investigate. Somehow, it happens that every time the spell wears a bit thin, we got a fresh injection of public service and then we carry on.