The Free Press
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About two hundred years ago a number of things started to appear in Europe which were the fruit of the Renaissance and of the Reformation combined: Two warring twins.
These things appeared first of all in England, because England was the only province of Europe wherein the ancient Latin tradition ran side by side with the novel effects of protestantism. But for England the fantastic schism and heresy of the sixteenth century, already dissolving to-day, would long ago have died. It would have been confined for some few generations to persons outer Northern parts of the Continent which had never really digested but had only received in some mechanical fashion the strong meat of Rome. It would have stopped with, or before long after, the Thirty Years War.
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Fantastic essay. Should be required reading in school to help unsuspecting generations know that the main stream media has an agenda that is not based on delivering factual unbiased television journalism. The fact that this essay was published over 100 years ago adds emphasis to how long this problem has existed and will serve as an example of how the media has shaped politics vs. the people that vote for the politicians.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Hilaire Belloc wrote this wonderful and terribly vital small book way back in 1918. But its message resonates loud and clear even today. Within this brilliant manuscript, Belloc describes an essential fact small known, then and now: Newspapers cost more to print than their unit sales fee. So, how do newspapers stay in business, and even prosper? They are subsidized by publicity.
And herein lies the tale. Publicity is controlled by the fantastic capitalist fortunes. Therefore these fantastic capitalist fortunes control the press. This is is a lesson that modern folks really need to consider well. Duped by the corporate press, now the mainstream media, they are somehow convinced that the media is populist. Nothing could be further from the truth. The media serves the needs of its controllers, the wealthy.
Belloc also provided rich content relative to a truly free press. This then existed due to the efforts of such as Belloc, and his fantastic friend, G.K. Chesterton. And, in a way, it exists even today with newsletters of point interest and very vital internet web sites, like antiwar.com and lewrockwell.com. Belloc even provides extraordinary insights relative to the insightful usage and evaluation of such aspects of the free press that again resonate even today.
This is, in my opinion, one of Belloc’s most vital books. And that is adage reasonably a lot, for I have thus far been privileged to read well more than twenty of the fantastic man’s books. It is fervently recommended. Take care. And God bless.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Hilaire Belloc wrote a thoughtful book about countering the Establsihment Press(The Capitalist Press as he calls it) with a Free Press that was not theme to control by advertisers and Press Barons. Belloc wrote this book c 1917, but his remarks still apply. In fact, if anything, the Establishment Press is exponentially worse 90 years later when the appearance of this book.
Belloc starts this fleeting study with comments on why advertisers pollute “news.” Editors and journalists regularly write to please advertisers even though these same editors and journalists will not use that is advertised since many of the products they plug in their newspapers are harmful to health and safety. The reason why journalists and editors of the Establishment Press is that the advertisers fund the Establishment Press, and the editors lose their their self respect and ethical standards to keep the rich subsidies they get.
Belloc does not stop with advertisers. His comments re Press Barons are worth noting. Belloc accuses Press Barons and their allies of using newspapers to make or break political facts. Lying journalists can write sordid tales of political facts’ personal lives whether or not they are right. The fact that Press Barons get their editors and journalists to lie is not vital. As long as a scandal, whether right or not, is published, such a tale can ruin a public figure. Press Barons can focus on a political nobody and make his career by favorable attention. Or these same news mogols can snub a public figure and end his career.
Belloc also makes a case of Press Barons either suppressing knowledge of events or distorting such knowledge. The Establishment Press can fabricate tales and snub vital events. These problems should appear all too familiar to anyone who has sense.
Yet, Belloc offers solutions to these problems. Belloc offers the Free Press as an alternative. An honest Free Press faces hurdles such as lack of publicity subsidies, perfect boycott by the Establishment Press, and officially authorized challenges. Yet, Belloc argues that the Free Press can survive. Belloc’s criticisms of the Free Press is specialization. Persons who edit or write for the Free Press have so many smaller publications that they have a coordination problem. Smaller editors are too all ears and regularly present levelheaded reporting. But, their extreme conclusions regularly distort their work.
In spite of these criticisms, Belloc has hope. Belloc thinks that the Free Press has the advantage of propaganda which readers may want to offset the lying of the Establishment. Smaller Free Press editors may benefit at the exposure of truth when the Establishment is caught concealing the truth. Belloc also thinks that Press Barons and their poltical cronies may suffer the wrath of readers when they learn the abuse of power and irresponsible rule.
The obsticles that the Free Press may face are not enough to supress their work. Publicity boycotts, officially authorized challanges, blackout from the Establishment, etc. are not enough to ruin the Free Press. Belloc argues that the Free Press will use men who have knowledge, who can write coherently/concisely, and whose work has permament appeal. An example is the Establishments’ screaming headline which may get immediate attention. But, the distorted events and terrible writing commenting on the headline make such television journalism easily forgotten. On the additional hand, the tiny Free Press avoids the screaming headline with levelheaded writing based on knowledge, clear thinking, and excellent reading which are much more stable in peoples’ memory banks.
Finally, Belloc cites, among others, G.K. Chesterton as an editor of the Free Press. Very few if any can remember the journalistic hacks of the Establishment Press, but learned men and women know of G.K. Chesterton. Persons men and women who write and have self respect will not sell their soul to the Establishment press.
This reviewer has one minor criticism. Belloc presents his case very well. But, he could have blown up this book with point details. For example, he could have named some of the Press Barons and poltical facts whom he condemns. Doing so would have supported his thesis.
THE FREE PRESS is an vital book. Many Westerners know their Press Barons lie or are too cowardly to publish the truth. One reviewer remarked that the interneat may be the modern Free Press which is why so many government fluknies want to investigagte it. The fact that so much knowledge can be read on the internet may be a sign that the Establishment Press will either have to change or be exposed for their lying. One can hope that Belloc that the Free Press can overcome the Establishment Press.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
Rarely have there been two authors as prophetic as G.K. Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc. That their books are still so significant to so many today is testimony to their enduring greatness. Both these men are painstakingly Catholic authors, and it is this clear headed world view that leads directly to their timelessness.
The Free Press really and truly did shock me. I have known “traditional Catholics” who despise what I, as a Catholic loyal to Vatican II, stand for. Regularly they quote Belloc or additional writers to back up their claims. They regularly attack thoughts like freedom of expression, freedom of religion, etc. etc.
More regularly than not, when I go to the source materials, I see that the opinion they make rarely hold water. Here too, we see the same. Hillaire Belloc is a fantastic defender of the notion of a free and independent press. He defends promotion television journalism because journals with a clear bias don’t pretend to lack bias, so the reader can reflect about claims critically. He defends FREEDOM to write and reflect.
He is absolutely prophetic about the profit motive driving modern television journalism and the lack of objectivity that causes. One wonders what he would have thought about the blogosphere! Agreed the content of this book I reflect he would have been supportive of much it stands for.
This was an incredible read. Heartily recommended.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Belloc’s prognosticative prowess goes full tilt in his 1918 essay on the press. Belloc sees the development of the press as a child of capitalism: by 1918 the establishment press in England is driven by profit as a replacement for of truth, and has incredible power to shape policy and control policy makers. Why? Newspapers sell for less than it costs to produce them. The difference is made up by publicity. Thus newspaper owners are beholden to advertisers and are not inclined to run tales counter to their interest. Newspapers can make or break politicians at will. They tend to suppress discussion of real political issues in favor of manufactured ones so they can spin news according to their own interests.
Sound familiar? Many people will find truth in these descriptions even today, with regard to the major news networks. Belloc sees a remedy: an independent free press. Belloc argues that by reading many different perspectives, extreme though they may be, one can distill the real truth of the matter. He observes this is exactly how we renovate opinions outside of the mass media–by listening to a variety of people clarify the event and assess their credibility, as in a criminal examination for instance. A free press did exist in 1918, but was in its infancy. Thanks to the Internet, we finally have the truly free press that Belloc predicted would flourish.
This tract might make you rethink the thought of digesting a steady diet of network news only. What you get is not automatically what you see.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5