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Political reporting
There is but one way for a newspaperman to look at a politician
and that is down.
Frank H. Simonds
(1878-1936)
Gentlemen, I am sorry to find that some one member of this
body has been so neglectful of the secrets of the Convention as
to drop in the State House a copy of their proceedings, which
by accident was picked up and delivered to me this morning. I
must entreat gentlemen to be more careful, lest our transactions
get into the news papers and disturb the public response by premature
speculations.
George Washington
To the members of the Constitutional
Convention, Philadelphia
1787
When Supple had funds, he generally drank his wine at Bellamy's
and mounted to the gallery to his duties. In reporting the speeches
he paid but little attention to their correctness. Members, on
porousing what they had delivered the previous evening, were supposed
to find them dressed up with metephors and passages which they
had not uttered; but they were sometimes so beautifully turned
out that they never found fault with the metamorphoses, pocketed
the affront and fathered the oriental orations.
Anon
Describing the day of Supple, parliamentary
reporter of the Morning Chronicle