English - Prose Chapter 8: How free is the Press Long Answer Questions

Long Answer Questions

Question 1.The editorial policy of a popular daily is controlled by two chief factors. Which are they? Explain.

Answer:The.editorial policy of a popular daily is controlled by two factors, namely, the vested interests of its advertisers and the personal whims and ambitions of the man, or company that owns it. All newspapers get their revenue from their advertisers. To justify their rates of advertisements they have to have a large circulation. If they do so, they will have to sell their copies at a lower rate. No popular daily can meet its expenses by the sale of copies.

Major part of their revenue comes from advertisements so the daily has either to subserve the interest of the advertisers, or lose their revenue and go bankrupt. So no newspaper can support any policy, however good in national interest if it goes against the vested interest of its advertisers. Secondly, the editorial policy is determined by a wealthy man or company that owns the paper. It is decided by the interests and ambitions of that man or company, who have sufficient means to carry on without any support from advertisers.

Question 2.What is garbling? How does Sayers illustrate this form of distortion?

Answer: Garbling, according to Miss Sayers, is a special accomplishment of the press interviewer's distorting what the interviewee said. He is in the playful habit of making statements himself and attributing them to the interviewee. Miss Sayers illustrates this with an accident concerning herself. During the production of her latest play, the press interviewer had asked her about her future plans. She had replied that she never made plans.

Though novels paid better than plays, she preferred writing plays. She had added that if she got another commission for the Canterbury Festival, she would surely write it. Her reply duly appeared in the press. But it was garbled. It said, ‘Miss Sayers said that she would write no more plays, except on commission.’ Such playful distortion by the press interviewers makes the reported interviews unreliable. One should not believe that public men have said all that appears in the press.

Question 3.Describe in your own words the instances of deliberate miracle* mongering.

Answer:Miss Sayers has given an interesting instance of deliberate miracle- mongering by the press. The miracle was attributed to her. Miss Sayers made a public search. It comprised 8000 words. The full text of her speech was in the hands of the reporter. But it was reported that she delivered about 20,000 words in the space of an hour and a quarter. This was impossible. It would have been a miracle if any person could deliver 20,000 words in such a short space of time. But the press indulges in such miracle-mongerings.

Question 4.How are letters of protest treated by the newspapers? Describe in your own words.

Answer:If a speaker’s words are misquoted in the newspaper, he/she may write a letter of protest. But it is almost impossible to have the impression created to be corrected. In many cases letters of protest are ignored. Sometimes they print the whole letter, with the editor’s comments. No apology is offered. The comments simply assert that the actual words were printed. But the speaker must not expect to monopolize the whole of paper’s valuable space. The editors adopt another strategy too. They write a private letter in reply regretting the mistake. But such a letter does not remove the false impression formed on the readers. Rarely a newspaper prints an apology. Miss Sayers recalls old times when the editors had high moral courage to print an apology. But it is no longer the practice.

Question 5.Have you ever written a letter of protest to any newspaper? What was the fate of this letter?

Answer:No, I do not ever written a letter of protest to any newspaper, flat suppression letters of protest man be written these may be (a) England, (b) printed in full or in part, accompanied by an editorial comment to the effect that the words reported were actually said, and that the speaker must not expect to monoponse are paper’s valuable space (c) answered privately by the editora maneuver that does nothing to correct the false impression left in the public mind only occasionally and usually form a provincial paper, does one receive full apology and correction let me quote honoris cause, a not written to me from an editor of the loder school.

Question 6.‘He that is unfaithful in little is unfaithful also in much.’ How does Dorothy L. Sayers cite trivial personal examples to prove that the newspapers misrepresent in various ways? Do you agree with her?

Answer:Miss Sayers gives a few instances to prove that the newspapers misrepresented even trivial incidents. I don’t say that Miss Sayers is wrong in her judgment. But her views represent only one side of the coin. Press, no doubt, is a powerful organ. In our young democracy we have begun to feel the power of the press. The press brings to light many ills and cases of corruption, misuse of power, mistakes, etc in high places. If there was no press people would never learn about them. Despite some shortcomings, press is the watchdog of democracy. Of course, press needs to develop a code of high conduct for itself. As it claims to be the servant of the people, it ought to be a good servant.

Question 7.What is the author’s attitude to the freedom of Press? Do you agree with her?

Answer:The author is of the opinion that the press is very powerful and uses its freedom with impunity. Even the ministers are scared of the press because the press can make or mark reputation. The press is in most and even trivial, matters careless. It misquotes facts that look true. Press can give a color to reports so as to form public opinion the way it likes. In the author’s opinion there is no way to control the irresponsible behavior of the press. Any effort to correct the press is greeted with a howl: “There is a threat to the freedom of the press.’ Every newspaper has its editorial policy. This policy is determined by some vested interests, which may not subserve public good.

The press lets people know only what it wants them to know. It is assumed that people can be made to believe anything. Press has several ways in which it can distort and suppress facts. It presents facts in a way that creates an impression on the public mind as intended by the press. People have no way to get at the truth. Their only source of information is the press. Even if some of the readers can find out that the reports in the press are inaccurate, or misrepresented, there is no way to have them corrected. In fact, the press can make and mar reputation and mold and manufacture public opinion.

Question 8.‘Indeed, we may say that the heaviest restriction upon the freedom of public opinion is not the official censorship of the Press, but the unofficial censorship by a Press which exists not so much to express opinion as to manufacture it.’ How does the writer view the relationship between the press and the public opinion? Explain.

Answer:The writer is of the view that in a free country, and especially, in times of peace, the press is the free and most powerful organ to influence public opinion. The press is supposed to reflect public opinion, and force the governments to make or change their policies accordingly. But the author believes that the press does not so much reflect public opinion, as it manufactures it. Once when she was away, her house was broken into. The thief was disturbed by the newsboy. But the newspaper reported the incident after a few days. They changed the date of the incident so that the report did not look cold. They also said that the burglar ran away because she had returned home in time.

In fact, all the details about the incident were incorrect. She also speaks of another incident. She received a summons from the court for unshaded lights. She explained that her servant had carefully drawn the curtains but unfortunately there was a defect in the curtains. She did not find fault with her servant. But the newspapers reported that she had told the court that her servant had forgotten to draw the curtain. Naturally, it must have distressed her servant. She tells about these trivial incidents just to emphasize her point that if the press can misrepresent such minor incidents it cannot be expected to report important matters faithfully.