On Dishonest Journalism

Isn't it absolutely essential to keep a fierce Left and a fierce Right, both on their toes and each terrified of the other? That's how we get things done... "I don't believe you can do that," said Mark. "Not with the papers that are read by educated people." "That shows you're still in the nursery lovely," said Miss Hardcastle. "Haven't you yet realised that it's the other way round?" "How do you mean?" "Why you fool, it's the educated reader who can be gulled. All our difficulty comes with the others. When did you meet a workman who believes the papers? He takes it for granted that they're all propaganda and skips the leading articles. He buys his paper for the football results and the little paragraphs about girls falling out of windows and corpses found in May fair flats. He is our problem. We have to recondition him. But the educated public, the people who read the highbrow weeklies, don't need reconditioning. They're all right already. They'll believe anything. (C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength 99-0)