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I was doing some research for a novel I'm writing and came across this quote, which I began to ponder.
Was Swinton just ahead of his time, were things worse or better "back then," or are we completely jaded now?
Would it be best to just give up hope that we will ever have a free press?
Does seem depressing, doesn't it? Day in, day out.... besides blowing everything to smithereens and starting over from scratch, whatever shall we do (thanks, Scarlett)???
John Swinton (considered "the Dean of his Profession" by his peers), Chief of Staff New York Times, when
asked to give a toast at the New York Press Club in 1953 had this to say:
"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."
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