Wednesday, July 05, 2006

"The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth"

One of my readers eloquently quoted John Swinton of the New York Times, in response to my post The Huffington Rost and just so those of you who don't read readers's comments don't miss out, I have reprinted his quote below.

But please also note that variations of this quote have been misattributed as a response to a toast, by John Swinton, as "the former Chief of Staff at the New York Times", before the New York Press Club in 1953.

Accoding to http://www.constitution.org/pub/swinton_press.htm, however, Swinton, (who died already in 1901), after moving to New York, wrote an occasional article for the New York Times and was hired on a regular basis in 1860 as head of the editorial staff. He left the paper in 1870 and became active in the labor struggles.

The remarks were apparently made by Swinton, then the preeminent New York journalist, one night in 1880. Swinton was the guest of honour at a banquet given him by the leaders of his craft. Someone who knew neither the press nor Swinton offered a toast to the independent press. Swinton outraged his colleagues by replying:

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.

(Source: Labor's Untold Story, by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais, published by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, NY, 1955/1979.)

According to http://www.constitution.org, despite the misattribution, "the quote raises the issue of whether there is not continuing truth in Swinton's remarks, and whether some candid journalist might not be able to fairly say similar things today."

And anyone who has followed the media coverage of the Iraq war, the lies about "weapons of mass destruction," the Valerie Plame affair, or Judith Miller's incorrect reporting for the New York Times on the war and her subsequent fate, would recognize that not much has changed.

Fortunately, I think those are exceptions that confirm the daily reality, and that is that without our free press we would have long ago fallen into the hands of a worse political dictatorship than we have today.

I for one, am very grateful that we have a "free" press, even though it may have its blemishes and even though many newspapers are controlled by powerful families.

Without this press, we'd have nothing left of our freedom.

Something to think about the day after 4th of July.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually Doc, that quote appeared first on your other blog, "Take my Poll: You're in Control by an Anonymous person who said...I got from the website below and appeared days before MsMelody found it. Anyways, here's what I wrote:

It really is time to do something different with your blog doc. Now that I read this... from this site.

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20Government/Federal%20Reserve%20Scam/federal_reserve.htm

"Here's one terrific example. John Swinton, the former Chief of Staff for the New York Times, was one of New York's best loved newspapermen. Called by his peers "The Dean of his Profession", John was asked in 1953 to give a toast before the New York Press Club, and in so doing, made a monumentally important and revealing statement. He is quoted as follows:

"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 weekly 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."

Lets not be.

7/01/2006

Peter Rost said...

I figured this one would set off a discussion . . . reality is rarely black and white. And I still love to read both the WSJ and NY Times. And the WSJ, in spite of being more right wing, has no problem exposing lots of corrupt CEO's and companies. They do digging before anyone else even starts.

The problem we have today is not that people are fooled by the press, it is that they aren't even reading it, nor watching the news.

We're turning into a people of consumers watching the sport channel, instead of independent, critical thinkers.

And some people are quite happy about that.

Anonymous said...

justanotherblogreader, thanks for putting up those vids, I saw them a couple of days ago and have been completely depressed/distressed.

You might have already seen this site but I found it soon after I saw those videos, and MAN! did it drive the point home for me...

www.worldslaves.citymax.com
Here's some words from the site:

SLAVES

ARE YOU A SLAVE?

ARE YOU SURE?

IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU ARE JET-PROPELLED, AIR-CONDITIONED OR STEAK-FED...NOR DOES IT MATTER WHERE YOU LIVE IN THE WORLD...AND IT EQUALLY DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE BEEN PAID, FOR WHO SAID IT: "NONE ARE SO HOPELESSLY ENSLAVED AS THOSE WHO THINK THEY ARE FREE..."?

WHAT MATTERS IS WHETHER OR NOT YOU GET PAID FOR YOUR LABOR, OR PROPERTY.

THE NUMBER ONE DISTINCTION BETWEEN FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IS FREE PEOPLE GET PAID FOR THEIR LABOR, THEIR PROPERTY - SLAVES DON'T.




There's a hot chick under the "Dealers of Death" section... check it out...

Anyways, I agree with you that the idea of a "free press" is very much an illusion which is cleverly designed to have exceptions so we wont all catch on at the same time. They offer us a few dirty CEO's and fine a couple Corporations, and even jail our politicians and figure that will keep us distracted from the real oppression they have brought not just to us but to the world.

Anonymous said...

justanotherblogger, yeah, you get it... if we everyone knew they were slaves they would revolt and then who would do their work? So they take over our schools, courts, media, politics and most importantly, our currency.

shooter said...

Doc, just a quick suggestion. When you introduce multiple posts on a given day, rather than making them separate, just add to the original one. That way we can all stay together, rather than jump from one to the other. Just a thought, maybe others have a better one.

Peter Rost said...

I know. That's a tough one. Sorry the format for this blog is preset by Google and that also means I can't add buttons or spell check for commments, which has been suggested . . .

shooter said...

No problemo! After we help you get rich enough (Warren Buffet needs a replacement), we'll BUY Google and rename it............................ " PROOGLE."

I got a million of them, Doc.....lol

Anonymous said...

Aw geez Shooter that was TERRIBLE :-)

Proogle....I'm still shaking my head. Heh heh heh.

There is another point I would like to bring up in this dicussion as to our somewhat dishonest but at least giving it a shot press.

Something a marine general said 70 or so years ago. He was a double Congressional Medal Of Honor winner. Not a common feat.

But he had an honesty about what he understood was going on around him.

(Let's see if the bold works)

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?,


http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

Anonymous said...

Hmm the link didn't work.

http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

Anonymous said...

Oh well copy and paste I guess. Do read it, it is incredible. AND it is much longer by a good bit than what I posted.

When I posted it at several fight sites (where Neo Cons, and progressives get together and fight online) the Neo Cons, predictably tore him apart. Which is very typical of rightwingers, especially those who have never served.

Ignore the message and go after the messenger.

Sound familiar Doc?

Anonymous said...

I have no problem believing that both families are war profiteers, but it's what the progeny do with the ill gotten gains. Although I think JKF's legacy is more overblown than reality nonetheless I think and believe he had our best interests at heart.

His brother would have in all honesty been a great president and would have probably brought us into a better place than Nixon and Ronnie Raygun did.

I think and will always believe there is a special place in hell for Ronnie Raygun. I think he allowed this country to be led down the path to hell.

Greed is good was the motto of his administration. He also started the great divide in this coutry and got rid of the Fairness Doctrine in media.

Total scumbag and so was his wife. Running the country with a FREAKING ASTROLOGER!!!

Don't get me started.

Anonymous said...

During the last year or so of his presidency, Raygun was doing an "interview" and the cameras as usual were kept a hundred yards away.

The press was trying to ask him questions from a distance and a directional mike caught Nancy answering his question. You could hear her muttering under her breath the answers.

"Say YES". And he would.

"Say not at this time" And he would.

Today I wonder if anything would have been made of it, but back then he was untouchable and no big deal was made of it.

I hope he rots. And I hope Nancy rots as well.

shooter said...

How much heartache can a man take in one day? First I find out Beeta's married, and then to console me, Rosethejet zings me a groin kick. A "roundhouse" with the "Dorothy from Kansas" stilleto pumps was a cute addition, I must say.

Good nite, all. There's a nice bunch of people here.