The Shadow of Great Britain

Ledley deliberately paused for a moment, adopting the interrogation method of the Police Intelligence Department: ”Almost every newspaper in the country has such a column, The Times has it, The Morning Post has it, and the Chronicle Morning Paper has it too. It gives ordinary people a chance to voice their opinions, and no one denies this. But the issue is...”

Ledley tapped the table, his tone suddenly turning sharp: ”While you cannot control what readers write, you can control whether it gets published!”

Yang lifted his eyes, his brows almost furrowing into a knot.

”If these letters were received by The Times,” Ledley continued: ”They would delete those letters that are evidently false. No matter how sensational or how much they could boost sales, as long as the content is not factual, Thomas Barnes would never let it go to print. Because they know, press freedom is not freedom to fabricate!”

Yang wanted to argue: ”Our editorial principles are...”

”Editorial principles?” Ledley rudely interrupted Yang, not giving him a chance to explain: ”You’re absolutely right. I almost forgot, there are indeed some newspapers that don’t have any editorial principles to speak of at all.”

He lowered his head, fished out a stack of newspapers from his briefcase, and tossed them in front of Yang. They were all reports from the Satirist.

The pages were crammed with dense typography that almost filled the entire paper, beneath the headline was the Satirist’s characteristic exaggerated, provocative, sarcastic, and unscrupulous writing style.

Ledley lightly tapped with his finger on the Satirist: ”Take Mr. Barnard Gregory from the Satirist, for instance, he is quite adept with the readers’ letters column. As far as I know, more than half of the Satirist’s readers’ letters are written by himself. He often publishes letters he concocted under false names, exploiting the guise of ’public opinion’ to blackmail and extort. Either suggesting in readers’ letters that the Countess of Beche and Mr. William Burton are having an affair, or implying that the child recently born to Mrs. Nield is an ’unpleasant surprise’ to Mr. Nield, who just married.”

Yang’s mouth twitched, but quickly pursed into a straight line.

”Of course.” Ledley said casually: ”Mr. Gregory, the ’news warrior,’ was indeed once your colleague. In 1832, he was prosecuted for insinuating a scandal involving the Countess of Beche and Mr. Burton. In 1834, he was jailed again for implying Mrs. Nield had a child out of wedlock before marriage. Every time he was caught, he claimed he was merely publishing readers’ letters, expressing the public voice, reflecting press freedom. But what was the result? The result was, his readers didn’t end up in jail, only he did.”

Ledley smiled slightly as he pushed the stack of the Satirist toward Yang.

Yang looked at the pile of the Satirist, his expression fluctuating.

”False names, insinuations, anonymous letters, these are hardly new.” Ledley added, his voice almost casual: ”Of course, I don’t believe that the Sun has fallen to the level of the Satirist as of now. After all, you still have your limits.”

”But the problem is...” Ledley suddenly lowered his voice: ”These readers’ letters that you’ve published have indeed made the Treasury and a few MPs quite restless. So, if today’s issues can be resolved, that would be ideal. But if not, then you will have to negotiate with the MPs’ lawyers and the Treasury’s legal advisor.”

These words left Yang’s expression completely stiff.

He suddenly stood up: ”Stop trying to play me for a fool, even someone as mild as William Carpenter has been to jail, do you think I’ll be scared off by your threats of lawsuits? For us in the news industry, going to jail is sometimes not a bad thing, the Sun will never bow to the government!”

”Perhaps, since even Mr. Barnard Gregory, the habitual defamer, writes letters claiming injustice from prison, saying he just wanted the people’s voice to be heard.” Ledley slowly stood up, adjusting his coat: ”I’ve said from the start, I have no intention of threatening you in the least; I came today only wanting to resolve the problem. But regrettably, you have no intention of resolving it.”

Yang saw Ledley standing up to leave and hurriedly blocked his path: ”Regarding those articles you just mentioned, we have already provided a response during the previous inquiry at White Hall.”

”You certainly can say you’ve responded.” Ledley picked up his briefcase, capped his hat: ”But whether White Hall and the MPs accept is another matter. For fairness’s sake, I must inform you of some unfortunate news.”

Yang immediately asked: ”What news?”

”White Hall is currently considering revoking the Sun’s parliamentary reporting privileges.” Ledley shrugged with a smile: ”In short, when the Upper and Lower Houses meet at Westminster Palace, your parliamentary reporters will be banned from entering. But I suppose this isn’t a big deal, as your readers aren’t fond of the renovated Westminster Palace, presumably uninterested in parliamentary news.”

Yang’s face turned instantly pale: ”Are you joking?”

”Consider it a joke until anything is settled, all news can be taken as readers’ letters, lacking in any credibility.” Ledley’s tone was breezy: ”Oh, by the way, your former partner—Mr. Patrick Grant, ha... even though you two have been arguing for years over control, he still seems to harbor resentment over this issue.”