How ethical are the journalists allowed to be?
John Swinton, the former Chief of Staff of the NEW YORK TIMES,
called by his peers, "The Dean of his profession." was asked in 1953 to give
a toast before the New York Press Club.
'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 opinions 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 to an independent press? We are
the tools and vassals for 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'."