James Bovard Quotes

If the American President had control of the media, his job would be much easier.

I think, generally, the folks from mainland China have more positive feelings about the government here in many cases than the average Americans feel about their government.

Most of the press is in league with government, or with the status quo.

That's the heart of it: My shows were not that controversial with the American people. They were controversial with the people who think for the American people.

Censorship is advertising paid by the government.

We all know by now that Barack Obama is not a patriot. After all, he doesn't always wear a flag pin, and he objects to the idea that he should be required to in order to run for office.

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

Power in America today is control of the means of communication.

We believe it is patriotic to protect and save lives ... Worn with pride, country-wide.

When a nation is at war many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its efforts that their utterance will not be endured.

Patriotism ... is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit.

...the liberty of the Press is called the Palladium of Freedom, which means, in these days, the liberty of being deceived, swindled, and humbugged by the Press and paying hugely for the deception.

Most of these people habitually led rather gray lives. And they came to see the president much as they would have come to see the circus. It was something to talk over and remember and tell their children about. But I think that besides the mere curiosity there was good feeling behind it all, a feeling that the president was their man and symbolized their government, and that they had a proprietary interest in him and wished to see him and that they hoped he embodied their aspirations and their best thoughts.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home

Governments and reactionary groups resort to nationalism, victimization, and suppression to keep foreign or offending speech at bay.

In spite of your “liberty of the press”, at a hint from your government your whole national press becomes unanimous on questions outside domestic politics.

The mood [of the German people] is brilliant. The Government has succeeded very well in making us appear as the attacked.

Obscenity, who really cares. Propaganda, all is phony.

Every time you think, you weaken the nation.

The greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.

As Americans we must always remember that we all have a common enemy, an enemy that is dangerous, powerful, and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government.

the heaviest restriction upon the freedom of public opinion is not the official censorship of the Press, but the unofficial censorship by a Press which exists not so much to express opinion as to manufacture it.

In the old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press.

The term propaganda rings melodramatic and exaggerated, but a press that—whether from fear, careerism, or conviction—uncritically recites false government claims and reports them as fact, or treats elected officials with a reverence reserved for royalty, cannot be accurately described as engaged in any other function.

All attempts by the State to bias the conclusions of its citizens on disputed subjects, are evil.