These words from Carlyle are a eulogy to the able newspaper editor. At the same time, they also speak to the great power an able editor holds.
In today's Japan, the mass media's influence is enormous. We can't help but admit that the media's editors are the true rulers of Japan. This is the reality.
But Japan's editors are not proper editors. They don't strive for the highest good as Japanese journalism requests of them. That's because their sense of ethics is out of whack.
The able editors of today's Japan demand more money and fame as well as the right to rule Japanese politics and government. They are power hungry. These editors have hazy morals. They use their murky sense of values to drive Japan's politics, government and economy in the direction they believe it should go. To get the results they want, Japan's most powerful editors band together. By uniting, they exert enormous power.
In other words, Japan's politics is controlled by these editors with their murky sense of values. They sent Japanese politics into decline, introducing a bad single-seat electoral system that gives a handful of parties despotic control, while treating the large majority like children. It's the mass media that has allowed the Democratic Party of Japan trio of Ichiro Ozawa, Yukio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan to win despite not having the ability to properly run the country. The jaded media is behind Kan's current administration as well. This immoral mass media is an enemy of the people.