Media Propaganda Quotes

• The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.

  Malcolm X

  Wisdom, Powerful, Print Media

  "The Awakening of Global Consciousness: A Guide to Self-Realization and Spirituality". Book by Dr. Jawara D. King, p.199, 2010.

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  The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent.

  Gore Vidal

  Country, Objectivity, Media

  Gore Vidal (1992). “The Decline and Fall of the American Empire”

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• The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.

  Noam Chomsky

  Smart, Passivity Is, People

  Noam Chomsky (2013). “How the World Works”, p.234, Soft Skull Press

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• If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly.

  Thomas Sowell

  Media, Differences, People

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• Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.

  Adolf Hitler

  Clever, Lying, Rise To Power

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• Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state...

  Noam Chomsky

  Media, Political, Democracy

  "On Propaganda". WBAI Interview, chomsky.info. January 1992.

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• That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything.

  Noam Chomsky

  Mean, Want, Propaganda

  Noam Chomsky (2011). “Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda”, p.26, Seven Stories Press

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• The point of public relations slogans like "Support Our Troops" is that they don't mean anything ... that's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody is going to be against and I suppose everybody will be for, because nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. But its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something, do you support our policy? And that's the one you're not allowed to talk about.

  Noam Chomsky

  War, Mean, Media

  WBAI Radio Interview, January 1992.

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• It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale.

  Jacques Ellul

  Media, Technique, Use

  "Jan. 6, 1912: Birth of the Supreme Tech Skeptic", www.wired.com. January 5, 2009.

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• People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.

  A. J. Liebling

  Print Media, People, Political

  The New Yorker, en.wikiquote.org. April 7, 1956.

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• The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.

  Hermann Goring

  Country, Peace, Freedom

  Quoted in Gustave M. Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary (1947).

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• The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.

  William Colby

  War, Agency, Government

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• Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.

  Aldous Huxley

  Freedom, Brave New World, Views

  Aldous Huxley (1950). “The Collected Works of Aldous Huxley: Brave new world”

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• For those who stubbornly seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination.

  Noam Chomsky

  Practice, Tasks, Indoctrination

  Noam Chomsky, Carlos Peregrín Otero (2003). “Chomsky on Democracy and Education”, p.212, Psychology Press

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• But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success.

  Adolf Hitler

  Persistence, Yield, Mind

  Adolf Hitler (1998). “Mein Kampf”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.

  A. J. Liebling

  Funny, Media Control, Politics

  New Yorker, 14 May 1960

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• All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.

  Noam Chomsky

  Inspirational, Media, People

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• In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

  Winston Churchill

  Time, Peace, Truth

  Discussion of Operation Overlord with Stalin at the Teheran Conference November 30, 1943; in Winston Churchill: The Second World War, Volume V : Closing the Ring (1952), Chapter 21 (Teheran: The Crux), p. 338.

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• Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

  Hermann Goring

  Country, Peace, Military

  Interview in Göring's jail cell, April 18, 1946. "Nuremberg Diary". Book by Gustave Gilbert, 1947.

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• The truth is not in the commercial media because the truth is a dagger pointed at its heart, which is its pocketbook.

  George Seldes

  Heart, Media, Deceit

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• The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.

  Noam Chomsky

  Smart, Thinking, Views

  Noam Chomsky (2013). “How the World Works”, p.234, Soft Skull Press

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• The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of the nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell a big one.

  Adolf Hitler

  Lying, Heart, Simplicity

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• The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.

  Joseph Goebbels

  Truth, Yield, Media Control

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• The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed.

  Adolf Hitler

  Inspirational, Lying, Size

  "Mein Kampf". Book by Adolf Hitler, www.theguardian.com. 1925.

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• Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

  George Orwell

  Mean, Two, Mind

  Nineteen Eighty-Four pt. 2, ch. 9 (1949)

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