blatant propaganda article:

::: THE MEDIA BLACKS OUT THE FACTS :::

"But surely, if these conspiracies were true, I would have heard about them in the daily news!" Joe Sixpacks

Dear Joe Sixpacks,

please consider the following words of John Swinton, the former Chief of Staff for The New York Times:

"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as 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."

John Swinton was former Chief of Staff for The New York Times. He was called by his peers "The Dean of his Profession" and was apparently one of America's best loved newspaper journalists. He made the above statement in 1953 during a toast before the New York Press Club, and in so doing made a monumentally important and revealing statement.

Is this a genuine quote?

The above quote and the credit has been published in many articles and all over the web. However, there is dispute about its authenticity. Some people say that John Swinton was never the chief of staff of the New York Times, or at least not in 1953. Or that if he was he never said the above, or anything like it. Did John Swinton really exist? Was he the editor or chief of staff of the New York Times? Did he really say the above? Click here to find out.

Statements by other prominent people in the media support John Swinton's statement.

Richard M. Cohan, Senior Producer of CBS political news has said:

"We are going to impose OUR AGENDA on the coverage by dealing with issues and subjects that WE choose to deal with."

Richard Salant, former President of CBS News once stated:

"Our job is to give people not what they want, but what WE decide they ought to have."