The Free Press

by Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc, a great English essayist of the 20th century, takes an uncompromising look at the forces working against the freedom of the press. Targeting financial and political influences, along with the influence of advertising, Belloc exposes the powers and motives responsible for the suppression of news and the manufacturing of opinion. Neither pie-in-the-sky idealism nor an irrational conspiracy theory, The Free Press is a rationally argued essay explaining the origins of those influences and factors that make the press less than what it should be honest: fair, and independent. This is a topical work written almost a century ago. Times have changed, but the situation has gone from bad to worse, and thus this work is even more relevant today. This book will be of interest to anyone, particularly the student of journalism and its history, who is curious about the rise of the major papers and media networks, and about the forces both overt and semi-covert working to shape what is reported and which opinions are sanctioned.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Catholic, Classics, Journalism, Politics

Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

People considered Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc, French-born British writer, as a master of light English prose and also knew widely his droll verse, especially The Bad Child's Book of Beasts in 1896.

Sharp wit of Hilaire Belloc, an historian, poet, and orator, extended across literary output and strong political and religious convictions. Oxford educated this distinguished debater and scholar. Throughout his career, he prolifically across a range of genres and produced histories, essays, travelogues, poetry, and satirical works.

Cautionary Tales for Children collects best humorous yet dark morals, and historical works of Hilaire Belloc often reflected his staunch Catholicism and critique of Protestant interpretations. He led advocates of an economic theory that promotes and championed distribution of small-scale property ownership as a middle ground between capitalism and socialism alongside Gilbert Keith Chesterton, his close friend.

In politics, Hilaire Belloc served as a member of Parliament for the Liberal party, but the establishment disillusioned him. His polemical style and strong opinions made a controversial figure, who particularly viewed modernism, secularism, and financial capitalism as threats to traditional Christian society in his critiques.

Influence and vast literary legacy of Hilaire Belloc extends into historical circles. Erudition, humor, and a forceful rhetorical style characterized intellectual vigor and unique perspective, which people continue to study and to appreciate, on history, society, and human nature.

Reviews

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

ENGLISH: Excellent article about the evils of what he calls "the official Press," how it suppresses some news, distorts others, or invents a few, as a part of the political agenda of its owners or advertising sponsors, never in favor of the public.

He also considers how the free Press, however puny and subject to boycott, can try to launch a never-ending fight against the official press.

I found this article, published just over one century ago, startlingly up-to-date. In fact, his description of the tricks and schemes of the lawyer-lobby reminded me of those used today by the gay-lobby.

ESPAÑOL: Un artículo excelente sobre los males de "la prensa oficial", de esta cómo suprime algunas noticias, distorsiona otras o inventa unas pocas, como parte de la agenda política de sus propietarios o patrocinadores publicitarios, nunca a favor del público.

También considera cómo la prensa libre, aunque sea débil y se la someta a un boicot, puede lanzar una lucha permanente contra la prensa oficial.

Este artículo, que se publicó hace poco más de un siglo, es sorprendentemente actual. De hecho, la descripción que da de los trucos y planes del lobby de abogados de su época me recordó el comportamiento actual del lobby gay.

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highlighting varied issues of the so-called free press of Belloc's time, it so happens that many of these so mentioned issues still affect the press today. He focuses on how news is manipulated, analyses the industry's problems, and suggests a reformation of the news media.

You could read it online at project gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18018/...

[Justin Goodman · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's unsettling how contemporary this feels despite being just over a century old. Obviously not 1:1, but it's evidence enough of how solid and obvious the foundation of socialist critique is and how little changing institutions are as a whole within Capitalism. Today's criticism of Mainstream Media is the criticism Belloc made in 1918:

(1) It falls into the hand of a very few rich men [women too now. Yay 'progress']
(2) It is, in their hands, a mere commercial enterprise.
(3) It is economically supported by advertisers who can in part control it, but these are of the same Capitalist kind, in motive and manner, with the owners of the paper.

The familiarity of the situation might lead to cynicism (seriously, he even mentions the use of libel law to shut down discussion), but Belloc tries to account for this by saying that The Free Press - Socialist Media, if you will - does not have as its aim the "power to effect democratic reform." It's target is the Capitalist media which props up Capitalist lies so that "we shall enlighten, and by enlightening, destroy" Capitalism's propaganda arm.

The concluding chapter is energizing on first reading for this sip of hope. Belloc is a great rhetorician. It fades into depression when you think about it too long though.

[Kate Seger]

Assuming you have patience with the language (it is written in that very formal WW2 era British style, which gets a bit droll) The Free Press is well worth a read. Still relevant today, it highlights many of the problems that our not-so-free press (the Lame Stream media, in Sarah Palin's immortal words) suffers from. It also offers plentiful solutions for spreading a truly free press.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author was talking about pre-WWI Britain, but he could just as easily have been talking about the US in 2013. Good book.

[Christopher (Donut) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a querulous complaint against evils that are human and necessary, and therefore always present. I detest such waste of energy, and I agree with all my heart in the statement recently made by the Editor of "The New Age" that in moments such as these, when any waste is inexcusable, sterile complaint is the worst of waste. But my complaint here is not sterile. It is fruitful. This Capitalist Press has come at last to warp all judgment. The tiny oligarchy which controls it is irresponsible and feels itself immune. It has come to believe that it can suppress any truth and suggest any falsehood. It governs, and governs abominably: and it is governing thus in the midst of a war for life.

From the time I picked this up (2012), for fickle reasons ("Hey, it's free!"), to the time I started reading it (2020), for fickle reasons ("Hey, it's short!"), I did not realize I had picked up one of the most timely hundred-year-old books I had in my (virtual) library.

All the vices, all the unreality, and all the peril that goes with the existence of an official Press is stamped upon the great dailies of our time. They are not independent where Power is concerned. They do not really criticize. They serve a clique whom they should expose, and denounce and betray the generality—that is the State—for whose sake the salaried public servants should be perpetually watched with suspicion and sharply kept in control. The result is that the mass of Englishmen have ceased to obtain, or even to expect, information upon the way they are governed.

There are examples here which are quite obscure, and can only be guessed at, in a sense of mutatis mutandis. On the other hand, what about this part needs altering?

Next consider this powerful factor in the business. The truth confirms itself. Half a million people read of a professional politician, for instance, that his oratory has an "electric effect," or that he is "full of personal magnetism," or that he "can sway an audience to tears or laughter at will." A Free Paper telling the truth about him says that he is a dull speaker, full of commonplaces, elderly, smelling strongly of the Chapel, and giving the impression that he is tired out; flogging up sham enthusiasm with stale phrases which the reporters have already learnt to put into shorthand with one conventional outline years ago. Well, the false, the ludicrously false picture designed to put this politician in the limelight (as against favours to be rendered), no doubt remains the general impression with most of those 500,000 people. The simple and rather tawdry truth may be but doubtfully accepted by a few hundreds only. [...] But a man who has even once seen it stated that this politician was exactly what he was will vividly remember that description (which at first hearing he probably thought false); physical experience has confirmed the true statement and made it live. These statements of truth, even when they are quite unimportant, more, of course, when they illuminate matters of great civic moment, have a cumulative effect.



Belloc's conclusion is hopeful, and left me feeling hopeful about the current state of affairs.

[Isidore · Rating 4 out of 5]

My preconception of Belloc, derived from the negative comments of his adversaries, was that he was a nasty intellectual thug sent out by the Vatican to argue its critics into silence. So, I was pretty surprised to find myself enjoying this book quite a bit, and agreeing with most of it.

In fact, at least on the basis of this one book, Belloc comes across as a pretty prescient guy. Here he is, writing in 1918, and, a handful of topical comments aside, he might as well be writing about the present age of disinformation. Some of the points he argues include the following:

The public has surrendered its democratic power to a ruling elite in exchange for a small measure of security and material comfort.

Lawyers, doctors, and professional politicians form closed, interlocked fraternities that sustain each other's power.

The mainstream press is wholly corrupted by Capitalism, and tells the truth only insofar as is necessary to maintain credibility with the uncritical.

If you want to find out what is really happening, the mainstream press must be balanced with extensive reading of the alternative press, regardless of viewpoint or ideology.

Even so, no one source can provide consistently reliable information, and ideological bias must always be taken into account.

What to do about it all? Prospects for short term reform are very poor; but it's necessary for activists to keep on writing, because the only hope for long term change is that ordinary people will occasionally come into contact with non-mainstream opinions, and find that these resonate with their personal experiences better than mainstream propaganda.

Belloc doesn't actually employ the term 'activist'; I'm not sure it was in use at the time. But he mentions some of these literary guerillas by name: Chesterton, Shaw, H.G. Wells. . . Where are their equivalents today? I have an unhappy feeling that a century from now, only historians will want to read Chomsky and his ilk.

Today, a resurrected Belloc would find his pessimism largely confirmed (and I can imagine his horror at his Church's embrace of Capitalism under JP2), but he might be encouraged by the abundance of alternative viewpoints available on the internet. As for that nasty Belloc I was anticipating, the only sour note I recall was a dismissive comment about women's suffrage, although even there he went on to express praise and admiration for its exponents.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book regarding the media, and those who ultimately control it.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Probably the best media analysis I have ever read, and yet it was written over 100 years ago. As an Australian, it describes perfectly the current situation we find ourselves in. This could easily have been written as a polemic against Rupert Murdoch specifically, but also the packer family and fossil fuel lobbyists.

The only weakness I can think of was a slightly dry writing style, although I did appreciate that he was very concise and didn’t write more words than necessary. His sly comment about feminism being pathetic and an insult to the Christian institutions (🙄) was also disappointing, but this did not detract from his media analysis being first class. It had surprisingly strong socialist undertones which was a pleasant surprise, and Belloc argued well for writing from the bottom up rather than the top down.

Even though I disagree with Belloc’s Christian, specifically Catholic, faith, as well as his anti feminism, It seemed that he had the best intentions to critique and find truth wherever he looked. For this reason, I feel somewhat comfortable trusting his analysis even if I disagree with his beliefs on other matters.

Would be an excellent book to read for any Australians wanting to learn about how Rupert Murdoch controls the Liberal party and Scott Morrison. All Australian politicians are to a degree controlled by Murdoch but ScoMo and the Liberals are the most.

[Fr. Peter Mottola · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sort of addendum to "The Servile State", Belloc describes the problem with a press that obtains the majority of its revenue from advertising, viz. that the publisher will always find it in his best interest to omit (or distort) portions of the truth. Inasmuch as large business concerns are tied up with politics, for-profit newspapers can quickly turn into the "official press" of the government. In order to get a full picture of what is actually going on, one must read many small papers published by groups championing their various causes, but balance out the extremism or eccentricities of their various accounts by focusing on facts about which they all agree. Easily read in one sitting, this thought-provoking 1918 essay will bring to mind many examples from the present day.

[Rightful Freedom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leftists should not get too excited about a book which seems, from a distance of over 100 years, to criticize capitalism. By "Free Press" Belloc does not refer at all to the "freedom of the press" in America. He refers only to Britain and Europe. And by "Free Press" he means a certain then relatively recent movement to publish "papers" which were distributed without cost.

What he had in mind by establishing a "free press" was perhaps something like the Internet. And what he meant by the "Capitalist" press was something different than what it would mean today. Something more like "mainstream media".

[Bruce Cline · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incisive critique of the conventional (bought and paid for) press. Originally published in 1918 but as pertinent today as it was in wartime Great Britain.

[Courtney Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in the days when London was the center of the English-speaking world, and Oxbridge intellectuals wrote for and against each other with very little thought of any other audience, Belloc was known as a Catholic polemicist with a vicious talent for skewering his opponents. From the vantage point of the next century, however, it’s his wide angle works that seem more important. The Free Press is as pertinent today as when first published in 1918.... Read the full review at https://catholicreads.com/2019/03/16/...

[Roger Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, brief, accessible and incisive analysis of why and how the media manipulate and control the truth. Although this was written at a time - 1918 - when the media was largely limited to the Press (not even radio then) Belloc's understanding of the underlying issues remains profoundly relevant today.
Indeed the crippling problems he saw have only got worse. A profound condemnation of capitalism. Highly recommended. In time, I hope to review this book in more depth and place it in my growing archive of Belloc reviews, articles etc here: http://corjesusacratissimum.org/tag/h...

[L. Shosty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Though it has much to say about the inherent corruption of for-profit media, the predominance of this short book is emotional, ideological drivel. I am impressed that Belloc points out the short-comings of the free press, as well, but it's not enough. I would have liked to have seen less screed and more analysis.

[Ardyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Belloc nails it. As applicable today in the blogger vs Fox/CNN era as it was 100 years ago.

[Cris · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is hard for me to give this book a fair reading because the warnings Hillaire Belloc gave for the future of the fourth estate are now widely acknowledged to have occurred, so it is old hat in a way. Nowadays though, everyone knows that very few people own the mainstream outlets, indeed maybe two men. So while there is still merit to a Free Press, an alternative press of all political points of view, in this book Belloc is not addressing the problems of the Wild West cacophony that is the alternative press today. (Marshall McLuhan is probably closer to this moment in time but even then we are talking about a target that moves too fast....)