What we call a democratic society might be defined for certain purposes as one in which the majority is always prepared to put down a revolutionary minority.
Walter LippmannWhile the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom, the necessity of listening is what makes that right important.
Walter LippmannA free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society. ... A great society is simply a big and complicated urban society.
Walter LippmannFor in the absence of debate unrestricted utterance leads to the degradation of opinion. By a kind of Greshams law the more rational is overcome by the less rational, and the opinions that will prevail will be those which are held most ardently by those with the most passionate will. For that reason the freedom to speak can never be maintained merely by objecting to interference with the liberty of the press, of printing, of broadcasting, of the screen. It can be maintained only by promoting debate.
Walter Lippmann