Article August 1, 1936 Issue

We have been asked how The Christian Science Monitor...

From the Address of Paul S. Deland,—June 9, 1936

The Christian Science Monitor

We have been asked how The Christian Science Monitor maintains a nonpartisan standard. Some critics go so far as to say the Monitor should eschew politics altogether. We do refuse to play politics or be played by partisan politicians. But politics in its truest and best definition is the science of government, and the Monitor is thus vitally interested, and as a newspaper has a responsibility to promote the best there is in government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," as Lincoln put it.

The editorial page is the place where the Monitor expresses its opinion, approval or disapproval. But the news pages must be judged from an entirely different standpoint than the editorial page. On the news pages the Monitor prints the news; that is, what is going on, what men think and what they do. Because we print news of important activities does not necessarily mean that the Monitor approves them entirely. For instance, just now the Monitor will report actions and statements from the Republican Convention. Our stories will record various claims of the Republican Party. These stories will contain criticisms of the Democratic Party, and especially the present Administration. Some of our Democratic friends will read these stories and charge us with being partisan Republican. But they should read the paper regularly to get a balanced view of the picture. The Monitor as a newspaper will report claims of the Democratic cohorts [at the Democratic Convention] and criticisms of the Republicans. We make an earnest effort to keep reports of both these conventions balanced and accurate, factual not opinionative, so that the reader may have unbiased information upon which to form his own judgment.

Just for comparison I should like to go back twenty-five years and read a statement by one of the first editors of the Monitor setting forth what Mrs. Eddy wanted her newspaper to be.

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