When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion. The complex is made over into the simple, the hypothetical into the dogmatic, and the relative into an absolute.

" He compared the political savvy of an average man to a theater-goer walking into a play in the middle of the third act and leaving before the last curtain. Walter Lippmann (September 23 1889 – December 14 1974) was an American public intellectual writer reporter and political commentator famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War; he coined the term stereotype in the modern psychological meaning as well. Similarities between the views of Lippmann and Gabriel Almond produced what became known as the Almond-Lippmann consensus which is based on three assumptions:
Public opinion is volatile shifting erratically in response to the most recent developments.

Lippmann was twice awarded (1958 and 1962) a Pulitzer Prize for his syndicated newspaper column "Today and Tomorrow". Walter Lippmann (September 23 1889 – December 14 1974) was an American public intellectual writer reporter and political commentator famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War; he coined the term stereotype in the modern psychological meaning as well.