Editing Matthew Arnold (section)

===Journalistic criticism===
In 1887, Arnold was credited with coining the phrase "New Journalism", a term that went on to define an entire genre of newspaper history, particularly [[Alfred Harmsworth|Lord Northcliffe's]] turn-of-the-century press empire. However, at the time, the target of Arnold's irritation was not [[Alfred Harmsworth|Northcliffe]], but the sensational journalism of ''[[Pall Mall Gazette]]'' editor, [[W. T. Stead]].<ref>[http://www.attackingthedevil.co.uk/related/easter.php We have had opportunities of observing a new journalism which a clever and energetic man has lately invented. It has much to recommend it; it is full of ability, novelty, variety, sensation, sympathy, generous instincts; its one great fault is that it is feather-brained." Mathew Arnold, The Nineteenth century No. CXXIII. (May 1887) pp. 629–643. Available online at attackingthedevil.co.uk]</ref>
Arnold had enjoyed a long and mutually beneficial association with the ''[[Pall Mall Gazette]]'' since its inception in 1865. As an occasional contributor, he had formed a particular friendship with its first editor, [[Frederick Greenwood]] and a close acquaintance with its second, [[John Morley]]. But he strongly disapproved of the muck-raking [[William Thomas Stead|Stead]], and declared that, under Stead, "the P.M.G., whatever may be its merits, is fast ceasing to be literature."<ref>Quoted in [[Harold Begbie]], [http://www.salvationarmysouth.org/booth/v2-4.htm The Life of General William Booth] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314221042/http://www.salvationarmysouth.org/booth/v2-4.htm |date=14 March 2012 }}, (2 vols., New York, 1920). Available [online]</ref>

He was appalled at the shamelessness of the sensationalistic new journalism of the sort he witnessed on his tour of the United States in 1886. In his account of that tour, "Civilization in the United States", he observed, "if one were searching for the best means to efface and kill in a whole nation the discipline of self-respect, the feeling for what is elevated, he could do no better than take the American newspapers."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gurstein |first1=Rochelle |title=The Repeal of Reticence: America's Cultural and Legal Struggles Over Free Speech, Obscenity, Sexual Liberation, and Modern Art |date=2016 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |pages=57–58}}</ref>