When I see flags sprouting on official lapels, I think of the time in China when I saw Mao’s Little Red Book on every official’s desk, omnipresent and unread.

Bill Moyers (b. 1934) American journalist and public commentator

Essay (2003-02-28), “Patriotism and the Flag,” NOW with Bill Moyers (PBS)
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Moyers quoted the comments a few years later in a speech to the National Conference for Media Reform (St Louis) (2005-05-15); the phrase is often cited to that occasion.