New Republic Quotes
There is interposed between the voter and hid final judgment the whole mechanism of modern publicity. The final judgment is not the result of direct acquaintance; it is the result of the news reports, the advertising, the oratory, the elusive rumors which are the modern substitute for direct acquaintance.
The Democrat campaign operators, led by Robert Woolley, for the first time in an American Presidential campaign, used all the new techniques of public relations and advertising that had been developed. Many observers like the New Republic editors saw this in a negative light for American democracy. They wanted the old method where people met the candidates and had discussions with candidates or heard from others who had. It was in retrospect an editorial of nostalgia, as the country was growing so much that voter “acquaintance” with Presidential candidates was becoming more and more difficult.
New Republic, Editorial, 1916
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This was the veteran newspaper editor’s last column before retirement and he chose to write it about the role of the press in the Japanese imperialist and militaristic nation in the period before and during WWII. He was then a young journalist. While most Japanese see that period as disastrous where the nation lost its way, the ultra conservatives blame the insufficient attention and support of the military and in retrospect do not see that the Japanese have anything to apologize for. Most of Asia disagrees profoundly.
What is amazing about this quotation is that it shows the naivety of one of the most sophisticated politicians in the country. He and many politicians were really surprised that commercial consumer marketing techniques would work so well. He and many others thought that the issue of marketing political candidates was something that should be debated. Meanwhile, all the pragmatic politicians of both political parties jumped on the commercial marketing bandwagon, but the Republicans tended to master and execute the techniques more skillfully.
Stalin was very astute in realizing the power of the press and the modern media. As a result, his solution was to not only develop a strong party media apparatus, but deny any contrary groups the fight to press and media. He was so effective at media control that most dictators and theocrats would thereafter model the Russian system of monopoly control over the media.
