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Journalism

Suniland Magazine

1925

There is supposed to be such a thing as ethics in journalism and among journalists and journals. This we would like to call to the attention of certain northern newspapers and editors and the star reporters they have so unethically sent to Florida-not to report news or unbiased stories of conditions in our state, but to send back exaggerated yarns of the few bad things they could find in Florida and a lot of malicious untruths about the so-called boom.

Nearly all newspaper readers are intelligent and no one with any intellect at all could fail to "see through" the very much biased stories unfriendly to Florida that are appearing in a number of papers over the country. For this and other reasons we fail to understand why newspapers have adopted the course they have in order to prevent people and money from going to Florida.

They could have done this far more effectively by various other means that might have left them above criticism. As it is their spiteful publicity is having an opposite effect from the one intended. The psychology of unfair propaganda is that it acts as a boomerang against whoever is responsible for it.

This is exactly what is happening. And Florida is getting a lot of free advertising just now that is helping to make it the greatest state in the country, and we would suggest that while various newspapers are giving us so much free space that paid advertising efforts outside of the state be suspended.

Source:
Excerpt from: Hewlett, T.W. & Hansford, R.S., eds. "Ethics and Journalism."
Suniland, Nov. 1925, Vol. 3, No. 2. Pg. 35

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