296. Hours for Filing.—The extreme hours for filing dispatches to catch the various editions are worth noting and remembering. For an afternoon paper the story should be in the hands of the telegraph operator not later than 9:00 a.m. for the noon edition, 12:00 m. for the three o'clock, and 2:00 p.m. for the five o'clock edition. If the news is extraordinary—big enough to justify ripping open the front page—it may be filed as late as 2:30 p.m., though the columns of an afternoon paper are practically closed to correspondents after 12:30 or 1:00 p.m. Any news occurring after 2:30 p.m. should be filed as early as possible, but should be marked N. P. R. (night press rate), so that it will be sent after 6:00 p.m., when telegraphic charges are smaller. For a morning paper news may be filed as late as 2:00 a.m., though the columns are practically closed to correspondents after midnight.
297. Big News.—When big or unusual news breaks,—news about which there is no doubt of the general interest,—the correspondent should bulletin a lead immediately, with the probable length of the story and the time of filing affixed. Thus:
Marietta, Ga., Aug. 17.—Leo M. Frank, whom the Georgia courts declared guilty of the murder of fourteen-year-old Mary Phagan of Marietta, was lynched two miles from here at an early hour this morning. Frank was brought in an automobile to Marietta by a band of twenty-five masked men who stormed the Milledgeville prison farm shortly after midnight. Two thousand. 8:35.
Sherman
Then—particularly if the hour is nearing press time—the correspondent should follow as rapidly as possible with instalments of the detailed story, without waiting for a reply to the bulletin lead. When there is doubt about the length, editors would rather have one not take chances on delaying the news,—would rather have too much of a story than too little. Besides, a writer cannot get further than the second or third instalment before specific orders will arrive from the paper.
298. The Detailed Story.—After the lead, the details follow as in a normal story, the individual instalments being given the operator as fast as he can take them, each one marked "More" except the last, which is marked "30." Thus the continuation of the bulletin lead of the Frank lynching just given would be:
Not one of the armed prison guards, according to the best information now obtainable, raised a hand to prevent the mob accomplishing its purpose. Frank was taken from his cell and rushed to a spot previously chosen for the lynching, about a hundred miles from the prison. Not a soul, it is said, knew positively whether the men were his friends or his enemies until the lifeless body was discovered this morning. More. 8:45 p. m.
Sherman
Then the final instalment might read:
The rope placed around Frank's neck was tied in such a way as to reopen the wound caused some weeks ago when a fellow prisoner attempted to kill him by cutting his throat. Loss of blood from the re-opened wound no doubt would have caused his death had he not strangled. Thirty. 9:15.
Sherman
The "thirty" is the telegrapher's signal indicating the completion of the story.
299. Sporting News.—In handling sporting news a few specific instructions are needful, the first being the necessity of absolute impartiality in all controversies. Local rival sportsmen in their keen desire to win are continually breeding quarrels, which frequently make it difficult for the observer not to be biased; but the correspondent must be careful to present simple facts only, without editorializing. The need of filing all afternoon scores by 7:30 p.m., with 8:00 p.m. as the outside limit, should also be noted. Morning papers put their sporting news on inside pages and must make up the forms early. There is need of the utmost caution in having the news correct, particularly the box scores of baseball games, which have an unhappy way of failing to balance when one compares individual scores with the totals. In all contests where a seeming new record has been made, the correspondent should be sure of the record before telegraphing it as such. If there is the slightest doubt, report it as "what is said to be a record." Finally, one should be cautioned against reporting mere high-school contests, boxing bouts between local men, and other sporting news possessing limited interest only.