There’s no such thing at this date in the world’s history in America as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There’s not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never ever 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 if any of you would be foolish to write honest opinions, you would be out on the streets looking for another job … The business of journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon … We are the tools of rich men behind the scenes. John Swinton, American journalist to New York Press Club 1953
The paparazzi are nothing but dogs of war. Catherine Deneuve, Daily Telegraph 20 February 1977, re death of Diana
The men with the muck-rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck. Theodore Roosevelt, speech 14th April 1906
Free speech, exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where people are themselves free. Theodore Roosevelt
Never forget: the establishment is the enemy. The professors are the enemy. The press is the enemy. Richard Nixon, tapes
The press must be left free to publish whatever the source without censorship, injunction or prior restraint. The press was meant to serve the governed, not the governors. Justice Black, US Supreme Court, re release of Ellsberg Pentagon papers
Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people. Hugo Black, Supreme Court Justice
Thou god of our idolatry, the press. William Cowper, 1731-1800, The Progress of Error, 1782
4The job of the president is to set the agenda and the job of the press is to follow the agenda that the leadership sets. Lawrence Grossman, former head of PBS and NBC News
The American press, with a very few exceptions is a kept press. Kept by the big corporations the way a whore is kept by a rich man. Theodore Dreiser
The state dare not forget that all media have a duty to serve – a duty which flunkies of a so-called press freedom dare not be allowed to confuse. Adolf Hitler
I always believed the press would kill her in the end. But not even I could believe they would take such a direct hand in her death as seems to be the case ... Every proprietor and editor of every publication that has paid for intrusive and exploitative photographs of her ... has blood on their hands today. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph 1st September 1997
Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one. A J Liebling
The function of the press in society is to inform, but its role in society is to make money. A J Liebling
Every newspaper must have a ‘responsible’ [that is, a fascistic] editor and only journalists congenial to the government may be employed. A Minister of Propaganda undertakes to colour important dispatches and to dole out instructions on the treatment of news items ... Mussolini has said: ‘Journalism is free just because it serves only one cause and one regime.’ Carl T Schmidt’s The Corporate State in Action 1939
They went overboard. I mean, they really did. One newspaper, they paid a girl fifteen hundred pounds to sleep with me so they could get a story. I was annoyed because it was only fifteen hundred quid ... They didn’t know but I already had. George Best, interview The Parkinson Show 1975
The power of the press is very great, but not so great as the power of suppress. Alfred Harmsworth
Governments always tend to want not really a free press but a managed or well-conducted one. Lord Radcliffe, 1967
The liberty of the press is the Palladium of all civil, political, and religious rights of an Englishman. Junius, The Letters of Junius, 1772
A cynical, mercenary, demagogic, corrupt press will produce in time a people as base as itself. Joseph Pulitzer
Tea Party-style hatred, intransigence and inconsistency has transfixed the US. The danger is that the Mail will further push Britain into the same kind of mutual loathing, misdiagnosing opponents’ positions and deafening debate. Perhaps by turning on his tormentors Miliband is doing more than his father’s memory a service. Democracies – and their media – depend on minimal protocols of engagement being observed. It would be to everyone’s advantage if they were. Will Hutton, The Observer
From where I sit it is abundantly clear that Murdoch is engaged in a process of trying to create a de facto newspaper monopoly in Britain, and that the politicians are well aware of it and are not prepared to do anything about it ... I have no faith in the politicians doing anything about it. Andrew Marr
45,063. For decades one man has wielded extraordinary power in Britain. Now a murdered schoolgirl threatens to destroy his power after the News of the World was forced to admit that it hacked into her voicemail and deleted messages. After two weeks of revelations, resignations, apologies and arrests Rupert Murdoch is fighting to save his reputation. Panorama: Murdoch: Breaking the Spell? BBC 2012
For a brief moment in 2007 the culture of criminality was exposed: private detective Glenn Mulcaire and the News of the World’s Royal Correspondent Clive Goodman were jailed and disgraced. News International insisted Goodman was a rogue reporter and that it went no wider. ibid.
Andy Coulson, the News of the World editor, resigned but denied that he had any knowledge of phone hacking. Within a few months he was hired by David Cameron and went with him to Number 10. ibid.
Was James Murdoch involved in a cover-up? ibid.
The police have already paid a heavy price for their failure to investigate properly. Yesterday, Britain’s top police officer resigned ... Today, assistant commissioner John Yates also resigned. ibid.
Andy Coulson resigned, this time from Number 10. ibid.
What a story it could have made for the News of the World – a media magnet dragged down by a scandal borne within the country’s most popular party, parliament and the people outraged, a cover-up, arrests – you couldn’t make it up. ibid.
The Police, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Press Complaints Commission, have all opened enquiries. But are we any nearer to the truth? Dispatches: Tabloids’ Dirty Secret, Channel 4 2011
The police confirmed Max Clifford’s phone had been hacked, and the papers settled out of court with him reportedly for a million pounds. Gordon Taylor, Chief Executive of the Professional Footballers Association, also sued, reportedly accepting seven hundred thousand pounds in an out-of-court settlement. ibid.
News International nevertheless stuck to its line that this scandal involved only Goodman and Mulcaire. Until just last month. ibid.
The scandal had entangled a whole host of British institutions from the police to Downing Street to the News of The World’s owner Rupert Murdoch. ibid.
With the resignation of Andy Coulson, the seventy-nine-year-old Rupert Murdoch was suddenly galvanised. ibid.
But News International was not the only organisation in damage limitation mode. The Metropolitan Police were also on the defensive. Their original phone-hacking inquiry aroused fierce criticism. Limited in scope, it raised more questions that it answered. ibid.
Many blame what they see as an unhealthy relationship between the police and the News of the World. ibid.
The more cases that come to court the more pressure will build on Mr Coulson himself and on News International. ibid.
It now looks as if the crisis is spreading beyond the News of the World. ibid.
The Guardian – one of the few papers to cover the story. ibid.
They can also impersonate friends and family. ibid.
The Press Complaints Commission has now set up an investigation to investigate its original investigation. ibid.
We reveal how Rupert Murdoch wielded secret power over our politicians for decades. The phone hacking scandal has left David Cameron fighting for his reputation. He is not alone: successive British prime ministers have been enthralled to the billionaire media baron. We reveal fresh information about his empire’s links to the police. How have our leaders allowed themselves to be held to ransom by one man for so long? Dispatches: How Murdoch Ran Britain, Channel 4 2011
Over the years politicians and celebrities have flocked to Rupert Murdoch’s glamorous parties. ibid.
Our current prime minister David Cameron became even closer to the Murdoch empire than his Labour predecessors. He employed Andy Coulson in July 2007 just five months after he resigned over the News of the World phone hacking scandal. ibid.