page_0004

4.

tation and opinion, the kind of things that the old editorials gave
- and providing it apparently to the popular satisfaction. If radio
were, therefore, in a position to tell us everything that happened
from hour to hour, and to have experts expounding its significance,
what function would be left to the press? Not racing and sporting
news, or market cuotations, for radio can give those better and quicker
than any paper. Nothing would be left but advertisements, and
that seems a rather flimsy foundation for the future of the press. A
friend of mine at home the other day announced his intention of selling every
newspaper share he possessed and buying mining shares. I
thought his view an extreme one, but there is a certain surface justification.

Of course, things will never come to such a crisis. There
is ample room in our society for both methods of popular illumination.
In our traditional fashion we are certain to find some kind of cornpromise.
But it is interesting to speculate on just what form this
compromise would take.

The subject matter of a newspaper and of radio is the same,
and may be divided into news, and comment on news - that is opinion.
But opinion may take several forms. It may be advice on policy, such as
we found in the old editorials. It may be special descriptive articles
amplifying and explaining news, and relating it to world interest.
It may be a special personal by some notable expert,
of by some public man whose mental processes interest the whole community.
At present, I think, we may say that the mere news fact is
the staple of the papers. It is that which sells special editions -
sensational foreign doings, the results of sporting contests, betting