Editing John Pilger (section)

=== On journalism education ===
Since being invited to open the University of Lincoln's journalism school in 2004,<ref name="Lincoln School of Journalism">{{Cite web |date=2012-05-16 |title=Lincoln School of Journalism |url=http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/journalism/Default.htm |access-date=2025-01-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120516134226/http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/journalism/Default.htm |archive-date=16 May 2012 }}</ref> Pilger told the packed room at its launch that "Too often courses are like factories churning out conformist journalists for the industry. They tend to promote a ‘top-down’ kind of journalism which prioritises elite sources. Too rarely do they promote journalism that prioritises the views of ‘ordinary’ people. From my experience these are the people I can trust the most.”<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gazette |first=Press |date=2004-11-11 |title=Pilger slams factory-line journalists at Lincoln launch |url=https://pressgazette.co.uk/archive-content/pilger-slams-factory-line-journalists-at-lincoln-launch/ |access-date=2025-01-31 |website=Press Gazette |language=en-US}}</ref>

Pilger disagreed with the term mainstream media in 2009 lecture to students at the University of Lincoln: "He disputed the label of “mainstream”, preferring to label it “corporate”, as the most prominent media outlets are often controlled by large corporations. “Those whose journalism is meant for the most people are the mainstream.”"<ref name="thelinc.co.uk">{{Cite web |date=2009-10-15 |title=John Pilger explains "why journalism matters" |url=http://thelinc.co.uk/2009/10/john-pilger-explains-why-journalism-matters/ |access-date=2025-02-07 |website=The Linc |language=en-GB}}</ref>

In conversation with Charles Glass at the Frontline club in 2012, Pilger commented that:

“Journalism students should be taught to be sceptical of their employers, sceptical of their governments. Governments are still portrayed as benign if they’re ours, and if they’re other’s, they’re not.”

“Media is an extension of power but when we recognise that we become aware of official drivel and understand that the truth is subversive. It always is."<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=hgfIrtlcnLIoR5zV&v=-6erQm-AgjQ&feature=youtu.be |title=Reflections with John Pilger |date=2012-07-02 |last=Frontline Club |access-date=2025-02-07 |via=YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Reflections with John Pilger: "Journalism was an enormous privilege" |url=https://www.frontlineclub.com/reflections_with_john_pilger_journalism_was_an_enormous_privilege/ |access-date=2025-02-07 |website=Frontline Club |language=en}}</ref>

Writing for Arena Online in 2022, Pilger said: "When will we allow ourselves to understand? Training journalists factory style is not the answer. Neither is the wondrous digital tool, which is a means, not an end, like the one-finger typewriter and the linotype machine.

In recent years, some of the best journalists have been eased out of the mainstream. ‘Defenestrated’ is the word used. The spaces once open to mavericks, to journalists who went against the grain, truth-tellers, have closed."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Silencing the lambs. How propaganda works – Arena |url=https://arena.org.au/silencing-the-lambs-how-propaganda-works/ |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=arena.org.au |language=en-AU}}</ref>

In an interview with the Independent's Rob Brown in 1998 he noted the difficulty journalism students had in securing work: "You say lots of allegedly wise things to students and at the end they invariably ask the same question: 'How do we get a job?' That's a big pressure on young people. It's made the true maverick in journalism an endangered species. People simply cannot afford to be mavericks any more."<ref name=":1" />

Remarking in an interview with Ian Burrell of the Independent in 2008 that "...many start with the same passion I started with" and implores them to "keep your principles as you navigate the system". His watchword remains, 'Never believe anything until it's officially denied,' a favourite expression of reporter Claud Cockburn, father of Independent journalist Patrick Cockburn.<ref name=":2" />