Michael Walsh Opinion: Distrust in mainstream media has always been self-evident, especially among the job’s own professionals. John Swinton, editor of the New York Tribune addressed the New York Press Association on April 12, 1893.

“There is no such thing as an independent Press in America, unless it is in the country towns. There is not one of you who dares to express an honest opinion. If you express an honest opinion, you know beforehand it would never appear in print.  We are tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes.  We are intellectual prostitutes.”

It isn’t fake news to concede that the media reflects the opinions of its owners. The American owners of the Daily Mail wish not to be reminded that Viscount Rothermere, who pioneered popular journalism, ardently endorsed Adolf Hitler for many years.

Real journalists are self-effacing: Canadian Reuters correspondent Charles Lynch was candid: “It’s humiliating to look back at what we wrote during the war. It was crap, and I don’t exclude the Ernie Pyles or the Alan Mooreheads; we were a propaganda arm of our governments.”  

The most amusing self-effacement was that expressed by Derek Jameson. Considered Britain’s most notorious editor, he described his tabloid frankly. “All the nudes fit to print and all the news printed to fit.”

Commenting on coverage of the unfolding Sergei Skripal drama, mainstream journalist Neil Clark broke ranks: “In all my years in journalism, I have never felt so ashamed of my profession as in the last four weeks.”

A seminar specifically charged with giving the floor to international journalists was supercharged by candid exchanges unlikely to appear in print or on TV screens.

One delegate remarked: “There is no such thing as neutral journalism”. Another explained that journalists are now ‘soldiers of communication’, with the emphasis being on the term soldiers. An erudite delegate reminded attending journalists, editors and owners that ‘the internet and digital media are the battlefields of the 21st Century.’

Paul Craig Roberts, U.S. Assistant Secretary didn’t mince his words: “The United States no longer has a media. It has a propaganda ministry for the military/security complex, the neo-conservatives, and the Israel lobby. And the idiot Americans sit in front of the TV and absorb the propaganda, and they read the New York Times and think that they are sophisticated and in the know.”

Fernando Casado, Spanish Analyst and Legal Expert shares my experience. “Some journalists, who are actually quite open-minded and are aware of the real situation, have no choice but to write what is expected of them by their editors in order to make both ends meet and have a decent salary.” PLEASE SHARE OUR STORIES

THE ALL LIES INVASION Mike Walsh TWO BOOKS IN ONE – SAVE MONEY A thought-provoking illustrated compendium of bizarre, amusing examples of Allied wartime propaganda.  38 rave reviews over 130 illustrated stories: the lies that betrayed millions of Allied servicemen and their families. ONLY €27.

BUY MICHAEL WALSH’S BOOKS HERE