- 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.)
|
