We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
EDITORIAL TREATMENT OF LYNCHINGS.
- Authors
Ames, Jessie Daniel
- Abstract
Editorial treatment of lynchings offers an interesting and revealing study of public attitudes toward this peculiarly American custom. Environment and not personal inclination of editors determines the tone of opinion in almost every instance. As individuals, they are unanimously opposed to mob violence but, as editors who are caught in the general atmosphere of a given trade territory, they do not reflect their own ideas but those of the people upon whose goodwill their papers depend for revenue. They find themselves in the difficult position of a rider who must sit two horses at the same time, one standing, facing backward, the other moving rapidly forward unencumbered by the harness of tradition. They must satisfy that part of the watchful public pressing in closest and upon whose approval they must rely for immediate revenue. Editors, with few exceptions, condone lynchings by offering reasons for lynchers which are in effect sympathetic excuses defending the right of citizens under provocation to take the law into their own hands and constitute themselves judge, jury, and executioner all at the same time.
- Subjects
UNITED States; LYNCHING; HOMICIDE; CRIMINAL law; VIOLENCE; JURY
- Publication
Public Opinion Quarterly, 1938, Vol 2, Issue 1, p77
- ISSN
0033-362X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1086/265154