John Pilger Quotes

Official truths are often powerful illusions.

It is time we recognized that the real terrorism is poverty.

During my lifetime, America has been constantly waging war against much of humanity: impoverished people mostly, in stricken places.

It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and the myths that surround it.

There isn't a war on terror, there is a war of terror.

If I were a teacher, I would recommend that all my students very hurriedly read most of Orwell's books, especially 1984 and Animal Farm, because then they'd begin to understand the world we live in.

Two increasing themes which appear to dominate our listening, reading and watching lives are propaganda and 'national security', or manufactured war.

Secretive power loathes journalists who do their job: who push back screens, peer behind façades, lift rocks. Opprobrium from on high is their badge of honour.

There is no war on terrorism; it is the great game speeded up. The difference is the rampant nature of the superpower, ensuring infinite dangers for us all.

In these surreal days, there is one truth. Nothing justified the killing of innocent people in America last week and nothing justifies the killing of innocent people anywhere else.

An elite group of less than a billion people now take more than 80 per cent of the world's wealth.

What Nixon and Kissinger began, Pol Pot completed.

The U.S. is a cosmetic democracy.

The censorship is such on television in the U.S. that films like mine don't stand a chance.

Orwell is almost our litmus test. Some of his satirical writing looks like reality these days.

Israel is the American watchdog in the Middle East, and that's why the Palestinians remain victims of one of the longest military occupations.

Al journalism should be investigative, from football to cookery

I'm absolutely convinced of that. Israel is the representative of the United States in that part of the world. Its policies are so integrated with American policies that they use the same language.

The Palestinians don't have oil. If they were the Saudis, they wouldn't be in the position they are now. But they have the power of being able to upset the imperial order in the Middle East.

Vietnam was as much a laboratory experiment as a war.

We have an extreme rightwing government in this country, although it's called the Labour government.

I grew up in Sydney in a very political household, where we were all for the underdog.

Certainly, until there is justice for the Palestinians, there will never be any kind of stability in the Middle East.

We have an extreme rightwing government in Britain, although it's called the Labour government. That's confused a lot of people, but it's confusing them less and less.

The Mirror has become an important antidote to a media that is, most of it, supportive of the establishment, some of it quite rabidly rightwing. The Mirror is breaking ranks, and that's good news.