There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history,

File: 38yrsu6z7r1z.png (17KB, 586x528px)

17KB, 586x528px

There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in
America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.

There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you
did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly
for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of
you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be
so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for
another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my
paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.

The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to
pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and
his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this
toasting an independent press?

We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the
jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our
possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are
intellectual prostitutes. -john swinton. NYT 1880