"Oh, but I am," answered the old lady with a grim tightening of the lips.
"Not even Carleton would be allowed to incite to murder or arson. I
would have him prosecuted for inciting a nation to war."
"Why is the Press always so eager for war?" mused Joan. "According to
their own account, war doesn't pay them."
"I don't suppose it does: not directly," answered Mrs. Denton. "But it
helps them to establish their position and get a tighter hold upon the
public. War does pay the newspaper in the long run. The daily newspaper
lives on commotion, crime, lawlessness in general. If people no longer
enjoyed reading about violence and bloodshed half their occupation, and
that the most profitable half would be gone. It is the interest of the
newspaper to keep alive the savage in human nature; and war affords the
readiest means of doing this. You can't do much to increase the number
of gruesome murders and loathsome assaults, beyond giving all possible
advertisement to them when they do occur. But you can preach war, and
cover yourself with glory, as a patriot, at the same time.
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