"The requirements of contemporary civilization have engendered yet another quite specific form of literature called journalism. I cannot pass by in silence this new form of literature, since, aside from the fact that it offers nothing whatsoever for the development of the mind, it has, from my point of view become the fundamental evil in the life of people today because of the poisonous influence it exerts on their mutual relations. This form of literature has become very widespread in recent times because, according to my unshakable conviction, it answers more completely than anything else to the weaknesses and demands which lead to the ever-increasing will-lessness of people. It thus accelerates in people the atrophy of even their last possibilities for acquiring that information which formally still gave them a certain relative cognizance of their own individuality. The public never know much about who is writing; they know only the newspaper itself, which belongs to a group of experienced bussiness people. What the person writing in the press really knows, or what is going on behind the scenes in the newspaper office, the readers never know, but despite this fact readers still take everything written in the papers at its face value. Nowadays any whipper-snapper can become a journalist, so long as he knows how to express himself prettily and, as is said literally. From Meetings with Remarkable Men. published in UK 1963.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 02:05:08 +0000
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