| "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. 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 the paper, before
twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. Or quite possibly, I'd be dead."
"The business of 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. What folly is
this, toasting to 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, whores. Nothing more."
(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.)
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