Power of the Press

“We are a democracy, and there is only one way to get a democracy on its feet in the matter of its individual, its social, its municipal, its state, its national conduct, and that is by keeping the public informed about what is going on.

“There is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy. Get these things out in the open, describe them, attack them, ridicule them in the press, and sooner or later public opinion will sweep them away. . . .

“[P]ublicity may not be the only thing that is needed, but it is the one thing without which all other agencies will fail.”

—Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911), publisher, St. Louis Dispatch & New York World.

 

 

• Editorial Comment: And if the public doesn't care?

 

 

PeezPIX

The May issue of Senior News is out. After a Long Year, Silver Linings. Read all about it.

 

 

  

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 

Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD 

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard