Mass media

"The people in the public relations industry aren’t there for the fun of it. They’re doing work. They’re trying to instill the right values. In fact, they have a conception of what democracy ought to be: It ought to be a system in which the specialized class is trained to work in the service of the masters, the people who own the society. The rest of the population ought to be deprived of any form of organization, because organization just causes trouble. They ought to be sitting alone in front of the TV and having drilled into their heads the message, which says, the only value in life is to have more commodities or live like that rich middle class family you’re watching and to have nice values like harmony and Americanism. That’s all there is in life. You may think in your own head that there’s got to be something more in life than this, but since you’re watching the tube alone you assume, I must be crazy …" Noam Chomsky

"The first bachelor generation is just climbing the university chairs. People who are perfectly trained in their craft, who have internalized the hegemonic ideology, and who are good advertising media for a system that needs academic confirmation in order to be able to continue to say 'democracy'. This generation already determines what 'good science' is. It fills journals, conference programs, and so eventually textbooks, lectures, and seminars - with topics, perspectives, and terms it has taken from the political agenda and the tenders linked to it, and which it doesn't question because it couldn't learn that anywhere." Michael Meyen

"Almost a hundred years ago, the philosopher John Dewey said that we are living in the greatest flood of mass suggestion that mankind has ever seen. But in 100 years, the superlative has only swelled, albeit without this being publicized today. Edward Bernays called propaganda the “executive arm of the invisible government”. And he recognized that propaganda is to democracies what violence is to dictators. Perhaps that would be a contemporary definition of propaganda: it is a Permanent Toxic Rape of Consciousness, or PTRC for short. It is a permanent mindfuck by governments and corporate business, mediated by the media, carried out by bought comedians à la Böhmermann, pseudo-journalists à la Lanz, pseudo-intellectuals à la Precht, pseudo-health politicians, such as the pharmaceutical and drugs minister Lauterbach, pseudo-defence politicians such as Strack-Rheinmetall-Zimmermann, and other parvenus such as Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim, Eckart von Hirschhausen, Sarah Bosetti and other stirrup holders in editorial offices, theaters or foundations." Milosz Matuschek

"It's often been observed that the first casualty of war is the truth. But that's a lie, too, in its way. The reality is that, for most wars to begin, the truth has to have been sacrificed a long time in advance." Lester Neil Smith

"Swine flu was the first epidemic that was not spread by viruses, but by journalists. It quickly became clear that it was far less dangerous than our old winter flu - that most people were therefore unsuspecting and stupidly participating in the scaremongering by the pharmaceutical industry. Even the most responsible journalists usually lack a sense of proportion. We should keep this in mind: The great killers of humanity are hunger, malaria, AIDS, contaminated drinking water and road traffic." Wolf Dietrich Schneider

"The public debating chamber is at the heart of democracy. However, it can only fulfill its function if it is intact in the sense you mentioned. Since the media constitute the public debate space in the first place, they must be designed in such a way that they do not distort it in favor of powerful interest groups. By their very nature, corporate media cannot perform such a task, as their integration into economic power structures almost inevitably makes them an instrument with which powerful economic lobby groups can covertly introduce themselves into the public debate." Prof. Rainer Mausfeld

"Some of the smartest people I know actively believe the press … amazing" Elon Musk

"We didn’t want this war. The enemy is responsible for this war. The enemy’s leader is the devil. We’re fighting for a good cause. The enemy is using forbidden weapons. Horrible acts committed by the enemy are intentional; ours are accidental. Our casualties are minor; those of the enemy are significant. Artists and intellectuals support our cause. Our cause is holy/righteous. If you question (1)-(9), you are a traitor." Baron Arthur Ponsonby

"Why should freedom of speech and freedom of press be allowed? Why should a government which is doing what it believes to be right allow itself to be criticized? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons. Ideas are much more fatal things than guns. Why should any man be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinions calculated to embarrass the government?" Vladimir Lenin

"The tone is gently authoritarian, leaving no doubt that this is the way the world is and no other way [....]Proclaimers of unassailable truths [....] The broadcast gives the impression of a short devotional in a living room chapel." Hermann Rotermund

"I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the way the major socially defining issues have been handled since Corona. I've also talked to the people in charge there and emphasized that I don't want to participate in exposing dissenters to ridicule. Satire must not participate in narrowing the discourse. And now this is exactly what is happening again with the war in Ukraine. Narratives and positions of groups that are high up in the social hierarchy are being repeated incessantly, and at the same time the mood is being set against those who think differently. In my opinion, this no longer has anything to do with satire." Christine Prayon alias Birte Schneider

"You can tell a good journalist by the fact that he doesn't get mean about a cause, even a good cause." Hanns Joachim Friedrichs

"We're in a post-truth world where you can't believe the media, you can't believe Big Pharma, you can't believe politicians, you can't believe what you're eating, you can't believe yourself. Since we've existed, (if) there is a time where this whole empire could fall, it's now. Of course these things are going to arise because we can't trust anybody or anything. And I personally just believe and invest in my wife and my kids and my family. And yeah, I believe in them," Robbie Williams

"The announcement 'This is the First German Television with the Tagesschau' is often the halal to attempted dumbing down of the people." Volker Bräutigam