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
Advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
Cinema, radio, television, magazines are a school of inattention: people look without seeing, listen in without hearing.
—Robert Bresson (1907–99) French Film Director
In old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.
—Allen Ginsberg (1926–97) American Poet, Activist
People write negatives things, cause they feel that’s what sells. Good news to them, doesn’t sell.
—Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American Singer-Songwriter
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
Publication is a self-invasion of privacy.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
Gravity—the body’s wisdom to conceal the mind.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
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
For the very first time the young are seeing history being made before it is censored by their elders.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
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
Of course, it is possible for any citizen with time to spare, and a canny eye, to work out what is actually going on, but for the many there is not time, and the network news is the only news even though it may not be news at all but only a series of flashing fictions…
—Gore Vidal (1925–48) American Novelist, Essayist, Journalist, Playwright
Just because it’s in print doesn’t mean it’s the gospel.
—Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American Singer-Songwriter
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
The men with the muck-rake are often indispensable to the well-being of society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.
—Samuel Butler
We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Report me and my cause aright.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The job of the press is to encourage debate, not to supply the public with information.
—Christopher Lasch (1932–94) American Historian, Moralist, Social Critic
Advertising is legalized lying.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
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
The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers wthout government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.
—Allen Ginsberg (1926–97) American Poet, Activist
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
All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the twentieth century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press.
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian Dissident Novelist
It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make the public incapable of judging, to insinuate into it the attitude of someone irresponsible, uninformed.
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German Literary and Marxist Critic
Leave a Reply