W. T. Stead

thumb| William Thomas Stead (5 July 1849 – 15 April 1912) was an English newspaper editor who, as a pioneer of investigative journalism, became a controversial figure of the Victorian era. Quotes What a marvellous opportunity for attacking the devil! Letter accepting his appointment as editor of The Northern Echo, quoted in Hal Evans, Good Times, Bad Times (New York: Atheneum, 1984) p. 15 What is my message? That is what troubles me. I have not got a message. I am not by any means so ardent a Radical or as ardent in anything as I was. I have read so many newspapers on both sides that my old views have become so greatly modified that I no longer feel certain of anything. That is too strong, but it is true to a certain extent. Facts and existing circumstances prevent me being so enthusiastic as some are about remodelling the Universe. Quoted in J. W. Robertson Scott, The Life and Death of a Newspaper (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1952) ch. 11, p. 101 Government by Journalism (1886) "Government by Journalism", in The Contemporary Review, vol. 49 (Jan.–June 1886) pp. 653–74 The Press is at once the eye and the ear and the tongue of the people. It is the visible speech if not the voice of the democracy. It is the phonograph of the world. p. 656 No journalist is omnipotent, and even the most powerful journalist cannot influence those who do not read his paper. But within the range of his circulation — and readers, of course, are much more numerous than subscribers — he may be more potent than any other man. The damnable iteration day after day of earnest conviction wears like the dropping of water upon the stone. p. 662 An editor is the uncrowned king of an educated democracy. p. 664 The duty of a journalist is the duty of a watchman. p. 667 It is the great inspector, with a myriad eyes, who never sleeps, and whose daily reports are submitted, not to a functionary or department, but to the whole people. p. 673 External links Category:1849 births Category:1912 deaths Category:Journalists from England Category:Editors from England Category:Pacifists