Dan Rather certainly made the same point on British TV when he talked about
being "necklaced" if he reported the truth about the bogus rush to war in
Iraq. It was a confession that Americans did not see on the corporate
controlled TV stations here in the States.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/archive/2029634.stm
PEACE
Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Addison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Debunking the Swinton quote.
Most journalists have made that point, though perhaps not quite so
shrilly. I perhaps made it by spending most of my professional life
as a freelancer, though I've also worked for a lot of newspapers,
including quite a few of the grand ones. But it's simply no use
(literally - it's not useful) to try to paint it with such a broad
brush. It's simplistic, and perilous. For instance, you compare the
BBC favourably with the corporate controlled TV stations in the US,
but the BBC is far from perfect and has been heavily criticised for
its coverage of the Iraq war.
From a previous message:
>While I heartily agree the
>mainstream media give us a sugar-coated view and won't
>touch controversial stuff
Well, they do, eventually, maybe, some of them, some of it, and
journalists do - the media may be morally bankrupt, more or less, but
journalism isn't, with many exceptions, but not as whole.
That message also says this:
What is in the
archives is quite a few spin exposes, along with all the resources
you need to do that. While the Internet has greatly added to the
confusion, IMO that's more than outweighed by its providing a real
alternative and antidote to the strictures of the "kept press", and
sufficient good resources to help you sort one from the other, with a
bit of effort.
Since you've just shown that you're yourself susceptible to
unquestioned societal beliefs (John Swinton), and perhaps worse
(Joseph Newman), perhaps you should take note.
By the way, Joanne asked you this:
Hello Scott,
Can you provide a link or links for details on:
<snip>
while babies in Texas have their breathing
tubes ripped from their bodies against their mother's wishes because the
hospital can't extract enough money from them.
Thank you,
Joanne
Please don't ignore people when they question you.
Best wishes
Keith Addison
Journey to Forever
KYOTO Pref., Japan
http://journeytoforever.org/
Biofuel list owner
Hello Scott
Let's put in some of the rest of it, because you've provided a good
example of it.
Joanne said:
Thank you for your interest in my post. I like to find the stories
behind societal beliefs like this that have so often been accepted without
question.
And I replied:
It's MOST important to do that, IMO. We rely on the 4th Estate (of
which I'm a lifelong member) to do that for us ...
Okay?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Addison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We rely on the 4th Estate (of which I'm a lifelong member) to do that for
us, that's their role and essential function, but (though the exceptions are
many and honorable) there's no need for me to say how derelict they've
become in this duty, especially over the last few decades. It's always been
a "kept" press, of course, owned by the very interests it's supposed to
protect society against.
"Though the exceptions are many and honorable", and indeed they are.
It continued: "So we have to find out for ourselves, or be at the
mercy of inimical forces that are too often little short of
sociopathic. Fortunately it's almost always possible to do that,
with a bit of tenacity and scepticism, especially with the Internet
- the Internet will save us all, the first true leveller. Truly
something new under the sun."
So, to your legendary and largely FICTITIOUS quote from John
Swinton. Sorry Scott, it's an urban legend, one of these: "...
societal beliefs like this that have so often been accepted without
question."
---end---
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. - John
Swinton, the Chief of Staff for the New York Times, 1953
There are many debunkings of this myth. Here's one:
... One journalist there, Jeff McMahon, made this in response:
Yeah, I'll take that bait.
The last time I saw that phony quote Swinton was identified as the
"chief of staff" of the New York SUN, the date was 1853, and where
it now says "I am paid weekly," it then said "I am paid $150 a
week." Which is, actually, about how much I made in journalism.
Then some liar realized that newspapers don't have chiefs of staff,
at least the editorial departments don't, and if you're going to
lie you might as well do it big, so they made him the EDITOR IN
CHIEF of the New York TIMES in NINETEEN53. Unfortunately, the
editor of the New York Times in 1953 was Turner Catledge.
So the quote itself betrays a need for journalists because
otherwise people who spread such propaganda might go unchecked.
That having been said, I will acknowledge that this cheap lie, like
most cheap lies, has some truth to it. I think it is expressed
rather bitterly, personally, but I'm sure every journalist with any
history in the biz has had at least one day when they felt that
way. It's the very reason that I gladly applied the word "former"
to the word "journalist" when it is attached to my name.
Indeed, New York Times executive editor Max Frankel said something
very similar about the impact of profiteering on journalism after
he retired in 1994. Frankel probably isn't quoted quite so widely
because he doesn't use 21st century Neo_Old_Testament Naderite
phrasiology like "fawn at the feet of mammon."
What "Swinton" describes is not so easily described or it would
have been dealt with. It is more like a constant, subtle pressure
to bend to power. A pressure that can be defied and maybe even
often, but that does not seem to ever go away. The strong spend a
career tilting against it; the weak let it direct them, as you can
see every day in this country's media.
It certainly isn't true that you can never write your true opinion
in the American press. I wrote my true opinion plenty of times,
most recently when I wrote that commentary about Hearst Ranch. It
managed to pass through two editors and a publisher without one
word changed. However, no anti_Hearst commentary can run in this
county without a Steve Hearst commentary on the very same page. And
who is responsible for that? Is it the fault of the journalists?
No, for that subversion of truth and integrity we can thank our
county's professional greenwashers.
Anyway, before posting such, we should consider how our brothers
and sisters in the Newspaper Guild might feel about such a
broadbrush defilement of a very diverse group of largely hard
working and underpaid men and women.
I propose the following bumper sticker:
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FACT CHECKER
In cheerful solidarity,
Jeff McMahon
That's here:
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com/History/swinton.htm
John Swinton: Yes, he said it, but...
More:
Yes, Virginia, there was a John Swinton, and yes, he was an editor
of the New York Times, and yes, he did say the remarks attributed
to him. However, he did not say it at a retirement party, he did
not say it as an editor of the Times, and he certainly did not say
it in 1953, for the simple reason that he died in 1901...
John Swinton (1829_1901)
The managing editor of the New York Times during the Civil War,
John Swinton later became a crusading journalist in the movement
for social and labor reform. Scottish_born, he learned typesetting
in Canada before moving to the United States. During the trouble in
Kansas he was active in the freesoil movement and headed the
Lawrence Republican. Moving back to New York he wrote an occasional
article for the Times and was hired on a regular basis in 1860 as
head of the editorial staff. Afterward holding this position
throughout the Civil War, he left the paper in 1870 and became
active in the labor struggles of the day. He later served eight
years in the same position on the New York Sun and published a
weekly labor sheet, John Swinton's Paper.
Probably the true story:
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.)
And:
As for Mr. McMahon's response, I would say that he is entirely
correct in saying that the story creates an unfair image of the
media...
By the way, times have changed - these days, though the mainstream
media is arguably worse, there certainly is such a thing as the
independent press.
Best wishes
Keith
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