Walter Lippmann and the American Century — 14 Pictures in Their Heads

1. 1. Lippmann argued that modern government operates by the impact of controlled opinion upon administration, shifting sovereignty from the legislature to public opinion.
2. 2. Lippmann and Charles Merz's 1920 study of New York Times coverage of the Bolshevik revolution found the paper's reporting was dominated by hopes and fears, not facts.
3. 3. Lippmann concluded that the problem of democracy is not just biased reporting but the very nature of how public opinion is formed through stereotypes and pseudo-environments.
4. 4. Lippmann asserted that the average citizen cannot make competent judgments on complex public issues because the world is out of reach, out of sight, out of mind.
5. 5. Lippmann proposed that democracy can only work if specialized experts, using intelligence bureaus, provide accurate information to insiders, while the public merely approves or rejects decisions.
6. 6. John Dewey called Public Opinion 'perhaps the most effective indictment of democracy as currently conceived ever penned.'
7. 7. Lippmann ended Public Opinion with a romantic hope that intelligence, courage, and effort could contrive a good life for all men, despite his pessimistic analysis.