The events which are not scored are reported either as personal and
conventional opinions, or they are not news. They do not take shape
until somebody protests, or somebody investigates, or somebody
publicly, in the etymological meaning of the word, makes an
_issue_ of them.
This is the underlying reason for the existence of the press agent.
The enormous discretion as to what facts and what impressions shall be
reported is steadily convincing every organized group of people that
whether it wishes to secure publicity or to avoid it, the exercise of
discretion cannot be left to the reporter. It is safer to hire a press
agent who stands between the group and the newspapers. Having hired
him, the temptation to exploit his strategic position is very great.
"Shortly before the war," says Mr. Frank Cobb, "the newspapers of New
York took a census of the press agents who were regularly employed and
regularly accredited and found that there were about twelve hundred of
them. How many there are now (1919) I do not pretend to know, but what
I do know is that many of the direct channels to news have been closed
and the information for the public is first filtered through publicity
agents. The great corporations have them, the banks have them, the
railroads have them, all the organizations of business and of social
and political activity have them, and they are the media through which
news comes.
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