Walter Lippmann — American Journalism and the New Republic

1. 1. Lippmann argued that commercial priorities in news production could undermine democracy's need for honest reporting.
2. 2. Lippmann's theory of journalism was less about objectivity and more about the structures of journalistic publicity and the political consequences of lying in mainstream papers.
3. 3. Lippmann argued that liberty depended on the public's access to reliable and truthful journalism, without which democracy could not be free.
4. 4. The New Republic was funded by Dorothy Whitney Straight and her husband Willard, who promised not to intervene in editorial decisions but made their views known.
5. 5. Lippmann saw the ANPA scandal as evidence that commercial interests corrupted public debate, writing that 'if thought is to be sold and bartered... we are in a bad way indeed.'
6. 6. Lippmann argued that the war intensified problems in the newspaper industry, as war was more sensational than peace and sold papers.
7. 7. Lippmann valued detachment in journalism not as an objective view from nowhere, but as a way to cope with the whirl of gossip and self-interest in news gathering.
8. 8. Lippmann helped draft the Fourteen Points, which he later argued were effective only because they were publicized through cable, radio, telegraph, and daily press.
9. 9. In Liberty and the News, Lippmann argued that the crisis of democracy was a crisis in journalism, as the manufacture of consent was an unregulated private enterprise.
10. 10. Lippmann argued that free speech rights were insufficient; what mattered was the 'news structure' that shaped public debate.
11. 11. Lippmann called for professionalization of journalism to bring the publishing business under greater social control and produce more truthful news.
12. 12. Lippmann's 'A Test of the News' found that the New York Times published false news about the Russian Revolution, attributing it to subjective obstacles rather than capitalist conspiracy.