Michael Ledeen Quotes

I respect the press. The press and the media are a very useful watchdog to check the power of the government.

The newspapers of your country seem to be more powerful than the government.

Burke said there were three estates in Parliament; but in the reporter's gallery yonder, there sat a fourth estate more important far than they all.

Not many governments are reelected in Canada, against an adversarially hostile media, even when it's a government which has been as productive as yours. ... their power in Canada is as infuriating as it is real.

Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.

The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.

Washington is a one issue city ... whatever dominates the headlines.

The fourth estate which if not well looked to, will turn us all out of doors.

The power is to set the agenda. What we print and what we don't print matter a lot.

To say that the newspaper press represents public opinion is to administer insult to intelligent men. It is the property of speculators, political leaders, large contractors and railway directors.

The force of the newspaper is the greatest force in civilization.... [Newspapers] declare wars ... make and unmake statesmen.

The hand that rules the press, the radio, the screen, and the far spread magazine, rules the country.

The press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. One would then like to ask: by what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible?

I have never quite grasped the worry about the power of the press. After all, it speaks with a thousand voices, in constant dissonance.

I don't know how you can do it, if you don't recognition the media as a power center in America.

Television is democracy at its ugliest.

The Times has much less power than you think. I believe we attribute power to the media generally that it simply doesn't have. It's very convenient to blame the media, the same way we blame television for everything that's going wrong in society.

There is no method by which an average citizen can effectively fight the White House in the media.

We in the press, by our power, can actually undermine leadership.

The Petersons have not come forward in the press. Apparently they feel the media bears a large responsibility for Scott's conviction. It may be a while before we hear anything from them.

Let me make the newspapers, and I care not what is preached in the pulpit or what is enacted in Congress.

I think the media is a real demon.

I think the relation between the monarchy and the press is very much a two-way street.

I think I could argue that the press has more impact on politics than corporations.

I respect very much the role of the media in our society; I think they can be very, very helpful. They serve as a very useful check, sort of a watchdog over the actions of the government, and I respect that.