Public Opinion — Chapter XXII The Constant Reader

1. 1. A reader's loyalty to a newspaper is not contractually bound; it depends on daily judgment and cannot be sued for breach.
2. 2. Readers judge a newspaper primarily by its coverage of events they personally know, not by distant news.
3. 3. The general reader has no legal standing to challenge misleading news; only the aggrieved party can sue for slander or libel.
4. 4. Some newspapers succeed by printing readers' own names and local events, following Horace Greeley's advice that people are most interested in themselves and their neighbors.
5. 5. Newspapers use features like society gossip, crime, sports, and comics to hold readers, because general political news alone is insufficient to maintain circulation.
6. 6. Reporting is the poorest paid and least regarded branch of journalism, with able men leaving it as soon as possible for specialty or executive roles.
7. 7. Upton Sinclair's 'Brass Check' theory blames Big Business for corrupting the press, but he fails to explain why anti-capitalist newspapers are not models of truth.