Claud Cockburn on proprietors

July 9, 2007

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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