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==Career==
==Career==
Lippmann attended Harvard College, where he studied with the leading philosophers of the day, including [[George Santayana]], [[William James]], and [[Graham Wallas]]. His first job was helping muckraker [[Lincoln Steffens]] on ''Everybody's Magazine''. He became active in the [[Socialist party]] and was one of the founding editors of ''[[The New Republic]]'' magazine in 1913.
Lippmann attended Harvard College, where he studied with the leading philosophers of the day, including [[George Santayana]], [[William James]], and [[Fabian]] Socialist [[Graham Wallas]]. His first job was helping muckraker [[Lincoln Steffens]] on ''Everybody's Magazine''. He became active in the [[Socialist party]] and was one of the founding editors of ''[[The New Republic]]'' magazine in 1913.
He agreed with [[Theodore Roosevelt]] that the purpose of diplomacy was not to attempt the impossible but to deal realistically with the existing balance of power. During World War I he was a staff assistant to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, and a special adviser to [[Colonel House]], President [[Woodrow Wilson]]’s top foreign policy advisor. Lippmann helped draft Wilson’s [[Fourteen Points]] in 1918, which became the basis for ending the war and restructuring world affairs at the [[Paris Peace Conference]] in 1919, where he was advisor to House. In the 1920s he was editorial page editor of the influential Democratic newspaper the ''New York World'', and sharply criticized the foreign policy of Harding and Coolidge for ignoring the League of Nations. When the ''World'' closed in 1931 he started his newspaper column ''Today and Tomorrow'' for the Republican paper the ''New York Herald Tribune''. It was syndicated to 200 dailies across the country and continued until 1967.
He agreed with [[Theodore Roosevelt]] that the purpose of diplomacy was not to attempt the impossible but to deal realistically with the existing balance of power. During World War I he was a staff assistant to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, and a special adviser to [[Colonel House]], President [[Woodrow Wilson]]’s top foreign policy advisor. Lippmann helped draft Wilson’s [[Fourteen Points]] in 1918, which became the basis for ending the war and restructuring world affairs at the [[Paris Peace Conference]] in 1919, where he was advisor to House. In the 1920s he was editorial page editor of the influential Democratic newspaper the ''New York World'', and sharply criticized the foreign policy of Harding and Coolidge for ignoring the League of Nations. When the ''World'' closed in 1931 he started his newspaper column ''Today and Tomorrow'' for the Republican paper the ''New York Herald Tribune''. It was syndicated to 200 dailies across the country and continued until 1967.
==Public Opinion==
==Public Opinion==
In the 1920s philosopher [[John Dewey]] (1859-1952) engaged in a major debate with Lippmann on the impact of the technology on democracy. Both agreed that the communications revolution had created a large and more complex world, that political and social institutions had not kept pace with the changes wrought by technology, that the masses were more susceptible to propaganda, and that modernity threatened democracy. Their critiques diverge on solutions, especially whether or not democracy could be saved. While Lippmann saw the public as unredeemable and subject to mass manipulation, Dewey thought that more public involvement in socio-political affairs was needed and that tools of mass communication could be used to this end.<ref> Walter Lippmann, ''Public Opinion'' (1922) and ''The Phantom Public'' (1925); John Dewey, ''The Public and Its Problems'' (1927)</ref>
In the 1920s philosopher [[John Dewey]] (1859-1952) engaged in a major debate with Lippmann on the impact of the technology on democracy. Both agreed that the communications revolution had created a large and more complex world, that political and social institutions had not kept pace with the changes wrought by technology, that the masses were more susceptible to propaganda, and that modernity threatened democracy. Their critiques diverge on solutions, especially whether or not democracy could be saved. While Lippmann saw the public as unredeemable and subject to mass manipulation, Dewey thought that more public involvement in socio-political affairs was needed and that tools of mass communication could be used to this end.<ref> Walter Lippmann, ''Public Opinion'' (1922) and ''The Phantom Public'' (1925); John Dewey, ''The Public and Its Problems'' (1927)</ref>
==Manipulation of Public Opinion==
In 1922, Walter Lippmann published his book "Public Opinion" <ref>Walter Lippmann, ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6456 Public Opinion]''</ref> which at the time presented a major milestone in marking the ability of a journalist to manipulate their readers and viewers. The phrase "Manufacture of Consent" is directly attributed to Walter Lippmann <ref>p. 13, Noam Chomsky, ''Letters from Lexington: Reflections on Propaganda'', Paradigm Publishers 2004.</ref> from his book "Public Opinion". He wrote: <ref>Walter Lippmann, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=eLobn4WwbLUC&pg=PA248]'', p. 248</ref>
<blockquote>
That the manufacture of consent is capable of great refinements no one, I think, denies. The process by which public opinions arise is certainly no less intricate than it has appeared in these pages, and the opportunities for manipulation open to anyone who understands the process are plain enough.
</blockquote>
Lippmann went very far into detail of these methods of manipulation. He gives uses of keywords, for the use of tapping into people's stereotypes, and the use of editorials afterwards to make sure that the pre-determined outcome is assured. He fully understood the opportunities for manipulation and detailed the process. Here is one such example: <ref>Walter Lippmann, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=eLobn4WwbLUC&pg=PA355]'', p. 248</ref>
<blockquote>
It is a problem of provoking feeling in the reader, of inducing him to feel a sense of personal identification with the stories he is reading. News which does not offer this opportunity to introduce oneself into the struggle which it depicts cannot appeal to a wide audience. The audience must participate in the news, much as it participates in the drama, by personal identification. Just as everyone holds his breath when the heroine is in danger, as he helps Babe Ruth swing his bat, so in subtler form the reader enters into the news. In order that he shall enter he must find a familiar foothold in the story, and this is supplied to him by the use of stereotypes. They tell him that if an association of plumbers is called a "combine" it is appropriate to develop his hostility; if it is called a "group of leading business men" the cue is for a favorable reaction.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
It is in a combination of these elements that the power to create opinion resides. Editorials reinforce.
</blockquote>
To this day, the aggressive use of keywords and stereotypes is widely used by the journalist establishment.
==Politics==
==Politics==
In 1937 Lippmann attacked President Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to reorganize the Supreme Court, which reflected Lippmann's growing criticism of the New Deal. Although he originally supported Roosevelt's policies, Lippmann felt that the president was placing the American constitutional system in danger by setting illegal precedents.<ref> Frederic Krome, "From Liberal Philosophy to Conservative Ideology? Walter Lippmann's Opposition to the New Deal" ''Journal of American Culture'' 1987 10(1): 57-64. 0191-1813 </ref>
In 1937 Lippmann attacked President Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to reorganize the Supreme Court, which reflected Lippmann's growing criticism of the New Deal. Although he originally supported Roosevelt's policies, Lippmann felt that the president was placing the American constitutional system in danger by setting illegal precedents.<ref> Frederic Krome, "From Liberal Philosophy to Conservative Ideology? Walter Lippmann's Opposition to the New Deal" ''Journal of American Culture'' 1987 10(1): 57-64. 0191-1813 </ref>