Press Quotes – Reflections on the Role of the Press

"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

"If my sons did not want wars, there would be none."

Gutle Schnapper Rothschild

"Yes. I have decided that I will no longer work for public broadcasters for the foreseeable future, which means, for example, that I will no longer shoot any episodes of ”Tatort." I recently had two requests for public broadcasting productions, both of which I turned down. Because I don't want anything to do with the way they handled their reporting during the coronavirus pandemic. The one-sidedness and obvious government loyalty of ARD and ZDF leave me speechless."

Tom Bohn

"If you scare people enough, they will demand removal of freedom. This is the path to tyranny."

Elon Musk

"In the long run, even the most efficiently organized propaganda can do nothing against the truth."

Albert Schweitzer

"Young people are accused of using violence. But are we not in a perpetual state of violence? Because we were born and raised in prison, we no longer notice that we are stuck in a hole with our hands and feet chained and a gag in our mouths. What do you call a lawful state? A law that turns the vast majority of citizens into servile cattle in order to satisfy the unnatural needs of an insignificant and corrupt minority? And this law, supported by brute military force and the stupid cleverness of its agents, this law is eternal, brute force, contrary to justice and common sense, and I will fight against it with my mouth and my hands wherever I can."

Karl Georg Büchner

"We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the economy."

Chris Hedges

"Everything is backwards; everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information and religions destroy spirituality."

Michael Ellner

"The few who could understand the system (checks, money, credits) will either be so interested in its profits, or so dependent on its favours, that there will be no opposition from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that capital derives from the system, will bear its burdens without complaint, and perhaps without even suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests."

Nathaniel Meyer Rothschild

""In a money-driven sham democracy, the financial system takes precedence over the law." This is state-legalized fraud. The consequences of this fraud are: exploitation of people and nature, quantitative growth pressure, national debt, privatization, progressive impoverishment of many people, concentration of wealth and power among the richest, corruption, crises, and wars. The mainstream media, corporations, and the ruling political puppets are all part of this fraudulent system."

Rico Albrecht

"The system absorbs those who think they can utilize it. Nor can there be any question of finding a modus vivendi or achieving attenuations. It has been demonstrated how the liberal state becomes an authoritarian state. The course is set and no accommodation will be either lasting or sufficient. In face of this absolute power, only an absolutely negative position is viable. What we have in mind is the attitude that conscientous objectors take on a specific point, and not without good reason. In the present set-up the anarchist attitude of a total refusal of validity or legitimacy to any authority of any kind seems to me to be the only valid and viable one. The point is not to enforce a particular view of society but to establish a counterbalance, a protest, a sign of cleavage. In face of an absolute power only a total confrontation has any meaning."

Jacques Ellul

"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

"Culture teaches that only “nuts” and “crazies” challenge authority. Law is the holiest and most sacred emblem of culture.

Insanity is not an inability to perceive reality; it is a willing rejection of reality in favor of the artificial constructs of tyranny. Law threatens violence upon all who refuse to obey it. When you chose to act upon an artificial view of reality, you are insane. People obey law out of fear of death, until they can be properly cultured to accept the rule of law without question. Cultural indoctrination is insanity. The definition of insanity is blind obedience.

It is insane to believe that those in power over people rightfully belong there. It is insane to assume that they will always be there. It is insane to believe that law has the right to command the obedience of people. The culture of royalty, the culture of patriotism and the culture of law are all insanity.
No human being who understands the fullness of their own worth would ever accept the notion that someone ought to rule over them. It is the function of culture to blind the eyes of people to their own worth, and to deafen their ears to any speech that may teach them. When cultural influence is at its peak, insanity ravages the mind. Obedience is the object of authority, and authority wants no possibility of rebellion. The definition of insanity is blind obedience."

Jeremy Locke

"If you want to remain a slave to the banks and want them to pay the cost of your own slavery, then let them continue the issue of currency control and regulate the money supply of the nation."

Sir Josiah Stamp

"Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!"

Mayer Amschel Rothschild

"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

"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,"

John Swinton