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(Below is a priceless description of bourgeois journalism, all the more priceless at a time when the media are fomenting war. It is possible that this item has even been posted on this list before, but if so, it is good enough to be looked at again. Swinton was honest about his profession, but you wonder why he kept on in it. Perhaps he had no other skill than this type of intellectual prostitution. Steve Kaczynski) Journalism > >One night, probably in 1880, John Swinton, then the preeminent New York >journalist, was the guest of honour 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.) > _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
