“Indeed,” I said, “that of which I speak has already begun. I will read
you what stands written here:
‘An important witness against Bloombury Bright, Priest of the
Pericles Avenue Temple of Zeus, in Bright’s trial before fifteen
priests of the State Synodos, was Theodora wife of Diodoros
Ploutocrates. She charged that in the month Anthesterion the priest
embraced and kissed her twice. On a second visit, when he found
her wearing a chiton,[14] she says, he was more violent in his
attentions.’
“Do you not think this very vile, O Megaphon?” I asked.
“Most vile indeed,” he said.
“And would you like to have your daughter read it?”
“No, by Zeus!” he cried. “For there is no good in it, but only evil. It
would befoul her mind.”
* * * * *
VII. “And there will be another consequence,” I said. “Will not the
makers of the paper think they must make it attractive to the demos at
all costs, and will not the gatherers and arrangers of the news learn
to do this by adding to or taking from the truth, or even by inventing
news; so that we shall not be able to distinguish between the true and
the false?”
“It will be,” he said, “as you say; at least in the case of the paper
that tries above all to please the demos.”
“There will thus be deception in two ways,” I said: “they will omit,
and they will invent and add. But this is not the only evil from which
we shall suffer. For consider the editor’s page. The newspaper has
always been, it says, the moulder of the demos’s thoughts; and so,
indeed, it was, so long as its editors were leaders of great causes,
and thought strongly, and were masters of their own words. But how,
when it must make its gains from those who buy and sell, and not
from the followers of truth, shall it be able to attack or to favor
whatsoever and whomsoever it please? How shall it be free to attack
evil rich men whose advertisements it must have, or oppose a party or a
movement cherished by them? And how in turn shall it be free to attack
the inconstant demos itself, by whom it must be purchased? For it will
not be conducted on principle, and look for its gains to those who
read, but commercially, and look to those who advertise.”
“I do not see,” Megaphon said, “how it can avoid these evils.”
* * * * *
VIII. “Does it not seem clear, then,” I said, “that the editor’s page
will be secretly open to purchase, and no longer truthful? For ‘We must
live,’ the owners will say.”
“Yes,” Chærephon replied; “and I have another thought. I am thinking
that much harm may come because we shall have news confused with
advertisement, or with secret attempts of various kinds.”
“You think rightly,” I said. “We shall have persons or groups of
persons making deceitful use of the news in advertising their products,
or in courting the favor of the demos for some project. Indeed, I think
that something might occur like this: those who sell goods for our
triremes and hoplites might pay out great sums for the secret aid of
the newspapers in rousing the passions of the demos by appeal to its
natural hatred and fear of the barbarians. For then the State would
increase the number of ships and soldiers of every kind, and thus they
would sell more goods, and make greater gains. Or a maker of some food
or medicine, or a false follower of Asklepias, might do the like; and
the demos, which is ever seeking after cures for real and fancied ills,
would soon enrich him. Can you not think that this could happen?”
“I can indeed,” Megaphon said.
“Then,” I said, “have we not proved that the newspaper will be used to
educate the demos wrongly--I mean by giving too much news of one kind,
and not enough of another, and exaggerating, coloring, and otherwise
falsifying the truth, and pretending to be a friend when it is an
enemy, and selling itself, whenever it safely can, to him who will give
most?”
“I will admit what you say,” Megaphon said; “for I am eager to hear
whither your discussion will lead.”
* * * * *
IX. “It appears, then,” I said, “that there is some doubt as to this
education of the demos you rely upon, as to whether it will be as
nearly perfect as you think. But let us go farther. I have spoken
until now of matters of fact. Shall I now say something of matters of
taste?--if you will yield to me in this, that taste has much to do with
the worth of nations.”
“I will concede it,” he said.
“Consider, then,” I began, “the language which the newspaper will
employ in its effort to please the demos. Will it not be of necessity
untaught and rough, and often coarse, like the speech of the demos
itself? For if it is to attract the demos, it must be easy to read, and
of spicy savor, thus to say, and must not speak after the manner of
the few. For the demos will have nothing superior to itself. We shall
thus find ourselves at cross purposes; our didaskaloi will be trying
to teach our epheboi to speak and write purely, and the newspaper will
teach them to speak and write like the demos. Of a truth, men who write
purely and well will not be employed, but only those whose manner is of
the demos. And again, they will cost the owners less. Do you think I am
right?”
“I grant it,” Megaphon said.
“And consider not only the news and the manner in which it is written,
but the advertisements also, of what nature they will be. Will not many
worthless things be advertised in a bold and shameless manner? and
will not the effect of this be to confirm bad taste on the part of the
demos, and beget and encourage it among the few who are better taught?
Let me see your paper again.”
Megaphon gave me the paper.