Walter Lippmann

"Without some form of censorship, propaganda in the strict sense of the word is impossible. In order to conduct propaganda there must be some barrier between the public and the event" Walter Lippmann

"In a democracy, the opposition is not only tolerated as constitutional, but must be maintained because it is indispensable." Walter Lippmann

"The news and the truth are not the same thing." Walter Lippmann

"Freedom depends on the truthfulness of the information that guides us" Walter Lippmann

"There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies" Walter Lippmann

"When all think alike, then no one is thinking." Walter Lippmann

"Though it is disguised by the illusion that a bureaucracy accountable to a majority of voters, and susceptible to the pressure of organized minorities, is not exercising compulsion, it is evident that the more varied and comprehensive the regulation becomes, the more the state becomes a despotic power as against the individual. For the fragment of control over the government which he exercises through his vote is in no effective sense proportionate to the authority exercised over him by the government." Walter Lippmann

"We are dealing with a problem in which deception has become organized and powerful; where truth is poisoned at its source; where the skills of the cleverest minds are used to mislead a bewildered people." Walter Lippmann

"We are all captives of the picture in our head – our belief that the world we have experienced is the world that really exists." Walter Lippmann

"The press does not tell us what to think, it tells us what to think about." Walter Lippmann

"It is often very illuminating...to ask yourself how you got at the facts on which you base your opinion. Who actually saw, heard, felt, counted, named the thing, about which you have an opinion?" Walter Lippmann

"Successful ... politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle or otherwise manage to manipulate the demanding and threatening elements in their constituencies." Walter Lippmann

"The only feeling that anyone can have about an event he does not experience is the feeling aroused by his mental image of that event ... For it is clear enough that under certain conditions men respond as powerfully to fictions as they do to realities." Walter Lippmann

"Whenever we accept an idea as authority instead of as instrument, an idol is set up. We worship the plough, and not the fruit." Walter Lippmann