There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and shame the devil.

The line frames journalism as a moral vocation governed by an overriding ethical imperative: truth-telling. By invoking the proverbial phrase “tell the truth and shame the devil,” it casts falsehood and evasion as not merely professional failures but complicity with wrongdoing. The “higher law” language suggests that pressures from politics, business interests, partisanship, or even public opinion cannot legitimately override the journalist’s duty to accurate reporting. In Lippmann’s broader intellectual project—concerned with propaganda, public opinion, and the limits of democratic knowledge—the sentiment underscores the need for reliable facts as a precondition for responsible self-government.