"An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained
intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve
that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and
a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in
time a people as base as itself."
-- Joseph Pulitzer
(1847-1911) Hungarian-born American newspaper publisher after whom the Pulitzer Prize was named.
Source: http://www.devvy.com/9612.html
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Joseph.Pulitzer.Quote.EC44