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One night, probably in 1880, John Swinton, then the preeminent New York journalist, was the guest of honor at a banquet given him by the leaders of his craft. Someone who knew neither the press nor Swinton offered a toast to the independent press. Swinton outraged his colleagues by replying:

"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."

Source: Labor's Untold Story, by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais, published by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, NY, 1955/1979.

"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.

I can heartily agree with that line, but as to the rest of it I could not be sure without reading the context to learn exactly what he means by

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."
Exactly who, and what perspective, does he claim are the secret evil suborners of perjury? If it is the Associated Press and the owners of the newspapers, he has a point. If it is advertisers, I hold the opinion that they are more victims of a protection racket than evil preventers of the publication of the truth. Look at the infamous exploding truck on, I believe, ABC. The producers of the "documentary" torched the gas tank to cause the fuel to flare up - and even then, they ended on a freeze-frame when the flame was at its maximum dramatic appearance, before the fire went out without consuming the truck.