Unbelievable quote from that article you posted:
Providing further proof, if further proof were needed, that John Swinton's admissions during his retirement speech from the New York Times (pre-Murdoch and Maxwell) were and still are absolutely correct.
When asked to respond to a toast to an independent press he pondered and then retorted: ”What folly is this toasting an independent press. Everyone present here tonight knows there is no such thing as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who would dare to write his honest opinions, and if he did, you know before hand they would never appear in print.
I am paid $250 dollars a week to keep my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar work.
The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the foot of Mammon, and sell himself, his country, and his race for his daily bread: We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are jumping jacks they pull the strings, and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are the property of these men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”
The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to
pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the foot of Mammon, and sell himself, his
country, and his race for his daily bread: We are the tools and vassals
of rich men behind the scenes. We are jumping jacks they pull the
strings, and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are
the property of these men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”
bump