H. L. Mencken Quotes

The U.S. corporate media, otherwise known as the "free press," is that hollow pillar on which contemporary American democracy rests.

A free press is the immune system of representative democracy.

The press is a watchdog. Not an attack dog. Not a lapdog. A watchdog. Now, a watchdog can't be right all the time. He doesn't bark only when he sees or smells something that's dangerous. A good watchdog barks at things that are suspicious.

I'm very much in support of the free press, but the free press ought to be educational and informative. And I believe they have fallen down recently on that.

I'm not seeing tough questions asked on American television. I'm not seeing those correspondents that would question those in power. It's like a club. We are not asking the tough questions.

It is the business of the journalist … to stand in permanent Opposition.

You have to create public activist pressure on papers like the 'New York Times' to keep them accountable.

The role of the press and the protections which we afford it are today more important than ever before, because we dwell in a society where belief in our governments and in the strength of our institutions is declining.

We have got to nurture the spirit of independent journalism in this country, or we'll not save capitalism from its own excesses, and we'll not save democracy from its own inertia.

Journalism has a check-and-balance effect to those in power, and those in power submitted themselves to it.

As reporters, we not only deliver the news of the day. We must also defend the truth. And just because we are pro-truth doesn't mean we are anti-Trump.

The job of the press is to defend their institution, hold the government accountable and freely report and gather information.

As players we're held accountable for poor performance, I think the same should be said for journalists.

There is no democracy without journalism.

This is the whole ball game, and this is what I really want to say. I'm proud that journalists are standing up, individually, speaking up in ways that we rarely see. They're not anti-Trump. They're pro-democracy.

It is very difficult to have a free, fair and honest press anywhere in the world. In the first place, as a rule, papers are largely supported by advertising, and that immediately gives the advertisers a certain hold over the medium they use.

Freedom of the press is the staff of life, for any vital democracy.

Freedom of the press is to the machinery of the state what the safety valve is to the steam engine.

With "Good Night, and Good Luck," I think it's kind of obvious what [Truman Capote]'s getting at there, and the importance of how it's playing out today, that is journalism doing, are the journalists doing their job, are they being the other checks and balances in our country that the way that obviously Edward R. Murrow was back then.

Even though the press at times made me completely crazy as they followed me around the hall, and asked tough questions over and over again - now believe me, every politician feels this way - it is a necessary part of our life, and we must have a press that isn't cowed and won't be afraid of ratings if they get put to the back of the room at a press conference.

So that all the people who say, you know, "All the media hates America." A lot of the media does hate America but this is a case of, actually, the press doing its best, I think, to do the right by national security. So good for them.

I've been trying to tame our press corps ever since I got into politics, and I've failed miserably. They get to express their opinions sometimes in the form of news.

All murder is a tragedy but when journalists are killed, public debate loses a voice that can provide an important contribution to democracy. It is essential that governments do all they can to ensure safe conditions for journalists to carry out their work.

A free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society. ... A great society is simply a big and complicated urban society.

But the fact being once established, that the press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood, I leave to others to restore it to its strength, by recalling it within the pale of truth. Within that, it is a noble institution, equally the friend of science and of civil liberty.