Note [ edit ]

Cleanup after tagged for cleanup. Cirt (talk) 01:49, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Unsourced addition [ edit ]

[1] = source, please? Cirt (talk) 20:33, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

added Oscar Wilde Quotes on Journalism [ edit ]

It was a fatal day when the public discovered that the pen is mightier than the paving-stone, and can be made as offensive as the brickbat. They at once sought for the journalist, found him, developed him, and made him their industrious and well-paid servant. It is greatly to be regretted, for both their sakes. Behind the barricade there may be much that is noble and heroic. But what is there behind the leading-article but prejudice, stupidity, cant, and twaddle? And when these four are joined together they make a terrible force, and constitute the new authority. Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism (1891), Wilde, Oscar, (1891 / 1912) The Soul of Man Under Socialism, London, Arthur L. Humphreys. Retrieved from University of California Libraries Archive.org 13 February 2018 https://archive.org/details/soulofmanunderso00wildiala



In the old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press. That is an Improvement certainly. but still it is very bad, and wrong, and demoralising. Somebody - was it Burke? - called journalism the fourth estate. That was true at the time, no doubt. But at the present moment it really is the only estate. It has eaten up the other three. The Lords Temporal say nothing, The Lords Spiritual have nothing to say and the House of Commons has nothing to say and says it. We are dominated by journalism. Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism (1891), Wilde, Oscar, (1891 / 1912) The Soul of Man Under Socialism, London, Arthur L. Humphreys. Retrieved from University of California Libraries Archive.org 13 February 2018 https://archive.org/details/soulofmanunderso00wildiala



In America, the President reigns for four years, and journalism governs for ever and ever. Fortunately, in America journalism has carried its authority to the grossest and most brutal extreme. As a natural consequence it has begun to create a spirit of revolt, people are amused by it, or disgusted by it, according to their temperaments. but it is no longer the real force it was. It is not seriously treated. In England, journalism, except in a few well-known instances, not having been carried to such excesses of brutality, is still a great factor, a remarkable power. The tyranny that it proposes to exercise over people's private lives seems to me to be quite extraordinary. Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism (1891), Wilde, Oscar, (1891 / 1912) The Soul of Man Under Socialism, London, Arthur L. Humphreys. Retrieved from University of California Libraries Archive.org 13 February 2018 https://archive.org/details/soulofmanunderso00wildiala



Here we allow absolute freedom to the journalist and entirely limit the artist. English public opinion, that is to say, tries to constrain and impede and warp the man who makes things that are beautiful in effect, and compels the journalist to retail things that are ugly, or disgusting, or revolting in fact, so that we have the most serious journalists in the world and the most indecent newspapers. Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism (1891), Wilde, Oscar, (1891 / 1912) The Soul of Man Under Socialism, London, Arthur L. Humphreys. Retrieved from University of California Libraries Archive.org 13 February 2018 https://archive.org/details/soulofmanunderso00wildiala



and more

The fact is, that the public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesmanlike habits, supplies their demands Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism (1891), Wilde, Oscar, (1891 / 1912) The Soul of Man Under Socialism, London, Arthur L. Humphreys. Retrieved from University of California Libraries Archive.org 26 February 2018 https://archive.org/details/soulofmanunderso00wildiala



Ernest: But what is the difference between Literature and Journalism? Gilbert: Journalism is unreadable and Literature is not read. That is all.

Oscar Wilde, The Critic as Artist Part I (1891), Wilde, Oscar, (1891 / 1905) The Critic As Artist Part II, in Intentions New York, Bretanos. Retrieved from Library of Congress Americana Archive.org 26 February 2018 https://archive.org/details/intentionsdecayo00wild

