John Swinton, for Chief of Staff for the New York Times-1953 toast
before New York press Club:
"...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
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 and 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."