The memorable visit to the Commonwealth of representatives of the leading newspapers of the Empire gives local interest to a contribution to the London "Westminster Gazette" by the Rev. Dr. Sidney Berry of what he calls a "friendly criticism by request" on the relation between the churches and the press. "It is difficult," he writes, "to understand on what principles the press decides what news is deserving of record and what news must be scored out by the blue pencil. In this matter the churches feel that they have a legitimate grievance. News which has a peculiar interest to them is either omitted altogether or relegated to a position in the paper which almost needs a microscope to detect it. No one expects that a newspaper is going to give any denomination a place on the front page or the honour of head lines. Such things are reserved for the latest case in the law court, or for a prizefighter, who has just returned to England.
But the churches surely deserve some notice, both on account of news value as well as of the great section of the public who are interested in their doings. I know that this criticism is a double-edged weapon. It suggests that the churches themselves are slack in their own publicity organisation, and it is to be hoped that they will take the lesson to heart, and no longer look upon the press as if it possessed some magical power of getting to know what is happening, "without any assistance."
In concluding his article Dr. Berry observes: -"No one wants his newspaper to be dull. But the Press can no longer be regarded as the mirror of life as life is lived by the majority of the people. It is as much obsessed by abnormality as the psycho-analyst. As one who believe in the great place of the Press in national life, I long to see a return to a greater sense of proportion in the kind of news recorded."
It is gratifying to be able to say that on this side of the world our principal journals, daily and weekly, are much more generous in the space given to religious matters than is the practice at the centre of the Empire. Nearly all the leading papers, beside reporting the doings of the churches as they occur, reserve a column or so each week for abstracts of sermons and resume of discussions on present-day theological questions all over the world and other important happenings.