inf-site/quotes/13483c65-9b6e-40d8-831b-5322740f08af

author: John Swinton
content: 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.
id: 13483c65-9b6e-40d8-831b-5322740f08af