Claud Cockburn on proprietors


The humbug and hypocrisy of the Press begin only when newspapers pretend to be impartial or servants of the public. And this only becomes dangerous as well as laughable when the public is fool enough to believe it.“It seemed to me that a newspaper is always a weapon in somebody’s hands, and I never could see why it should be shocking that the weapon should be used in what its owner conceived to be his best interests.

The hired journalist, I thought, ought to realise that he is partly in the entertainment business and partly in the advertising business – advertising either goods, or a cause, or a government. He just has to make up his mind whom he wants to entertain, and what he wants to advertise.”

Claud Cockburn

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