Can history furnish examples of journals leading?
History can help us with trying to answer the question on whether journals can lead, and I want to examine a campaign of Ernest Hart, Editor of the BMJ from 1867 to 1898.1 Hart was a major public figure in a way that no BMJ editor has been before or since. He was highly controversial, believing that, “An editor needs, and must have, enemies; he can’t do without them. Woe be unto the journalist of whom all men say good things.” Hart tried to lead on many issues, but his most prominent campaign was against “baby farming” — giving infants (often bastards) to carers for money, knowing that the carers neglected and even murdered them. In Hart’s first year as editor, the journal carried a story on the inquest of four children who had all died under the care of the same “nurse”. The journal also published several leading articles on the subject. In 1868, Hart advertised in a newspaper as a father-to-be, offering money for adoption. He received 333 replies and identified Mrs X, who had seven m
