The Fashion Reporter's Dilemma: Keeping Secrets in the Social Column
A Seattle newspaper correspondent reflects on the moral tightrope of reporting on local scandals while trying to maintain the trust of society figures.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The old-time prejudice against reporters is fast passing away. The pencil and notebook scribe now finds little difficulty in gaining access to any and every house in town. This is especially the case with women reporters who are now chosen from a class of people who would as soon think of moral suicide as of violating a confidence. Whatever is told them they respect and only print that which is actually intended for publication. But some of this reporting is terribly exacting work and difficult to manage. For example: Miss Reporter goes to see Mrs. Interview about a forgery in which her brother was implicated—not actually guilty, you know, but drawn into the case in a questionable way. 'Now, I'll tell you confidentially,' begins Mrs. Interview. 'No, please don't tell me confidentially, because I shall want to give the newspaper a fair account and I can't do it if you bind me this way,' I respond. The interview goes on, wearing out the unhappy reporter who must get in her story, while doing battle between her newspaper instinct and the betrayal of confidence. Try reporting a little while if you think you can always tell the right thing and withhold the wrong. Just try it.
“Try reporting a little while if you think you can always tell the right thing and withhold the wrong. Just try it.”
Long before the era of digital privacy debates, late 19th-century reporters were already grappling with the ethics of 'confidential' sources. This piece captures the transition of journalism into a professional trade where personal rapport was the primary tool for accessing the lives of the city's elite.
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