Wooing the press is an exercise roughly akin to picnicking with a tiger. You might enjoy the meal, but the tiger always eats last.
—Maureen Dowd (b.1952) American Columnist
The futility of everything that comes to us from the media is the inescapable consequence of the absolute inability of that particular stage to remain silent. Music, commercial breaks, news flashes, adverts, news broadcasts, movies, presenters—there is no alternative but to fill the screen; otherwise there would be an irremediable void. That’s why the slightest technical hitch, the slightest slip on the part of the presenter becomes so exciting, for it reveals the depth of the emptiness squinting out at us through this little window.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
It is impossible to read the daily press without being diverted from reality. You are full of enthusiasm for the eternal verities—life is worth living, and then out of sinful curiosity you open a newspaper. You are disillusioned and wrecked.
—Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) Singaporean Statesman
There was a time when the reader of an unexciting newspaper would remark, ‘How dull is the world today!’ Nowadays he says, ‘What a dull newspaper!’
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney, Writer
Not only do we have a right to know, we have a duty to know what our Government is doing in our name. If there’s a criticism to be made today, it’s that the press isn’t doing enough to put the pressure on the government to provide information.
—Walter Cronkite (1916–2009) American Journalist, Television
Power without responsibility—the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
Media is just a word that has come to mean bad journalism.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
No news at 4:30 a.m. is good.
—Lady Bird Johnson (1912–2007) First Lady of the United States, Conservationist
The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader
Th’ newspaper does ivrything f’r us. It runs th’ polis foorce an’ th’ banks, commands th’ milishy, controls th’ligislachure, baptizes th’ young, marries th’ foolish, comforts th’ afflicted, afflicts th’ comfortable, buries th’ dead an’ roasts thim aftherward.
—Finley Peter Dunne (1867–1936) American Author, Writer, Humorist
In old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Publication is a self-invasion of privacy.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
To the best of my knowledge and belief, the average American newspaper, even of the so-called better sort, is not only quite as bad as Upton Sinclair says it is, but 10 times worse
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
We’ve uncovered some embarrassing ancestors in the not-too-distant past. Some horse thieves, and some people killed on Saturday nights. One of my relatives, unfortunately, was even in the newspaper business.
—Jimmy Carter (b.1924) American Head of State, Military Leader
I also think the media’s presence simply raised the question: If the media could get to these places, why couldn’t the federal government?
—Barack Obama (b.1961) American Head of State, Academic, Politician, Author
If Thomas Edison invented electric light today, Dan Rather would report it on CBS News as, “Candle making industry threatened”.
—Newt Gingrich (b.1943) American Politician
Commercial jazz, soap opera, pulp fiction, comic strips, the movies set the images, mannerisms, standards, and aims of the urban masses. In one way or another, everyone is equal before these cultural machines; like technology itself, the mass media are nearly universal in their incidence and appeal. They are a kind of common denominator, a kind of scheme for pre-scheduled, mass emotions.
—C. Wright Mills (1916–62) American Sociologist, Academic
The greatest felony in the news business today is to be behind, or to miss a big story. So speed and quantity substitute for thoroughness and quality, for accuracy and context. The pressure to compete, the fear somebody else will make the splash first, creates a frenzied environment in which a blizzard of information is presented and serious questions may not be raised.
—Carl Bernstein (1944–73) American Journalist, Writer
Increasingly, the picture of our society as rendered in our media is illusionary and delusionary: disfigured, unreal, out of touch with reality, disconnected from the true context of our life. It is disfigured by celebrity, by celebrity worship, by gossip, by sensationalism, by denial of our societies.
—Carl Bernstein (1944–73) American Journalist, Writer
My uncle ordered popovers
from the restaurant’s bill of fare.
And, when they were served,
he regarded them with a penetrating stare.
Then he spoke great words of wisdom
as he sat there on that chair:
To eat these things, said my uncle,
You must exercise great care.
You may swallow down what’s solid,
but you must spit out the air!
And as you partake of the world’s bill of fare,
that’s darned good advice to follow.
Do a lot of spitting out the hot air.
And be careful what you swallow.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
You can never get all the facts from just one newspaper, and unless you have all the facts, you cannot make proper judgements about what is going on.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.
—Allen Ginsberg (1926–97) American Poet, Activist
I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
I hate journalists. There is nothing in them but tittering jeering emptiness. They have all made what Dante calls the Great Refusal. The shallowest people on the ridge of the earth.
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
Advertising is legalized lying.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
TV cassette players will take ever-bigger bites out of the regular TV-viewing audience, moviegoers, sports and other event-attending spectators. Cassette players are now the hottest thing on the entertainment scene since popcorn… Movie cassettes are improving the margin of profit for more and more Hollywood hits that don’t at the box office. And of course, there is the home video camera… The only limitation is the viewer’s time. And there, my friends, is the rub of the matter. With only one pair of eyes and a 24-hour day, tape-popping addicts have less and less time for going out to pay to see things.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
There is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgerize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.
—William Bernbach (1911–82) American Advertising Executive