Mass media

"Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic disease of the 20th century and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press. Such as it is, however, the press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislative power, the executive, and the judiciary. And one would then like to ask: By what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible? In the communist East a journalist is frankly appointed as a state official. But who has granted Western journalists their power, for how long a time, and with what prerogatives?" Alexander Solschenizyn

""Freedom of the press is the freedom of two hundred rich people to spread their opinions. As the production of newspapers and magazines requires ever greater capital, the circle of people who publish press organs is becoming smaller and smaller. This makes our dependence ever greater and ever more dangerous. There are oases in the German press where the air of freedom still blows, but how many of my colleagues can say the same? Those who are rich are free. That's not from Karl Marx, but from Paul Sethe. Since journalists are not rich, they are not free either."" Paul Sethe

"Freedom of the press in the West, which is much better than elsewhere, is ultimately the freedom of 200 rich people to publish their opinions." Peter Scholl-Latour

"We all know by now how dangerously the media's normal watchdog function has been transformed into a ruthless destruction machine for the sake of maintaining its own economic success." Edzard Reuter

"A handful of people control the world's media. Today there are about six people, soon there will be only four people who will take over everything: all newspapers, magazines, all films, all television channels. There was a time when there were different opinions in the media, there was a variety of directions in the media. Today there is only one opinion, which is formed within four to five days, then it becomes the opinion of everyone" Mike Nichols

"Social media has degenerated into a deafening cacophony of groups signaling and repeating their shared myths." Naval Ravikant

"There is no such thing, at this stage of the world’s history in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dare write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my papers, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist 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 jumping jacks, 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." John Swinton

"History will show that humanity in the 21st century was not enslaved by whips, chains, knives, or guns. It was enslaved by a small black box with around 666 (or so) channels, known as the television. They pump bullshit into our brains and expect us to regurgitate it to the next farmer we talk to." Unbekannt

"I say we close down the national media for 30 days and watch 80% of the world's problems go away." Unbekannter Autor

"As proposals for action along new lines arise to compete for the moral and physical support of masses, propaganda attains eminence as the one means of mass mobilization which is cheaper than violence, bribery or other possible control techniques." Harold D. Lasswell

"Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent every year to control the public mind" Noam Chomsky

"It is hardly necessary to point out that the inability of the masses to judge correctly deprives them of any capacity for critical thought—that is, the ability to distinguish truth from error and to form a sound judgment. The judgments adopted by the masses are merely imposed on them and are never the result of careful examination. Many individuals, in this respect, do not rise above the level of the crowd. The ease with which certain opinions become widely accepted is due above all to the inability of most people to form an opinion of their own on the basis of personal reasoning." Gustave Le Bon

"The influential news and press agencies are deeply intertwined with the interests of high finance." Christian Faltermeier

"The mass media are a kind of mouthpiece for the consciousness of the population. If this powerful instrument falls into the wrong hands, it can cause more damage than all available nuclear weapons combined." Christian Faltermeier