CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS look upon the modern newspaper quite differently from what they did in the old thought. Anything like the exploitation of evil is so foreign to their religious teachings that the publication of sensational items detailing disorders of any kind, grates upon their sensibilities. We desire to keep abreast of the times and to know what is needful for us to know in the affairs of this life, and for an account of current events the newspapers are the most ready and convenient source of information, therefore most of us read them; but when one takes up his paper in the morning and sees the flaunting head-lines designed to attract attention to the crimes, accidents, strife, discord, and misfortunes that have taken place within the preceding twenty-four hours, he feels like laying the paper aside and living in ignorance, if it is necessary to see these, things in order to be informed.
We live in the hope that the time is coming when the publishers of newspapers will learn that it is unwise and unprofitable to make public the crimes, misfortunes, and misery of the world. Many of them deplore what they consider the necessity for publishing these things, but they maintain that it is necessary because the people want this kind of news: therefore the paper which fails to supply this want must fail. If this be true, it is a sad commentary on the intelligence, morality, and feelings of the reading public. Is it true? If it is. who but the newspapers have fed and cultivated, if not created, this morbid perverted taste and desire for sensational news? It must be conceded that such publications can benefit no one, unless it be the publisher, and that only in a purely commercial way, for if the reading of such news is demoralizing to the reader, as it surely is, it can be no less so to the publisher—a penalty too great merely for the purpose of material gain.
In many instances the publication of criminal acts, done or alleged to have been done, betrays the secrets of a home, and discloses to the world information—sometimes falsified or exaggerated in order to make a readable story —that may and often does bring shame and sorrow to the innocent. Often the sensational story of a crime seems to carry its baleful suggestion to the weak and susceptible and thus develops other criminals. The exploitation of domestic unhappiness as it is disclosed in the divorce courts, and of the fact that freedom may thus be gained from the married state that has become unattractive, is a wrong to the people whose misfortunes are thus made public, and often incites others to resort to the divorce court for relief from a state of discord that might and should be overcome by mutual patience and forbearance. It may be said with absolute certainty that the sensationalism of newspapers is responsible for many crimes, many divorces, and untold unhappiness, to say nothing of its degrading effect, in general, on the public mind.
