We are the tools and vassals of the rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks; they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.
— John Swinton (1830-1901), Editor of the New York Sun, replying to the toast “An independent press,” at a journalists’ gathering, Twilight Club, New York, April 12, 1893
Connect:
This kind of honesty could only have been achieved through sheer courage or on the 10th toast of the evening.