In 1954, Egyptian university professors deemed inimical to the new revolutionary regime led by Gamal Abdel Nasser were fired. Successive measures, including the creation of the Supreme Council of the Universities in 1954 and the Ministry of Higher Education in 1961 enforced Egyptian academics’ firm subservience to the directives of the ministry and the council. Citing lack of academic freedom, Egypt’s iconic intellectual-academic Taha Hussein lamented in the early 1970s that the university had been turned into a secondary school incapable of creating the nation’s thinking elite. Reflecting on the university purge decades later, Egypt’s prominent journalist and Nasser’s spokesperson Mohamed Hassanein Heikal claimed that it was the 1952 Revolution’s “first real mistake.” Despite Heikal’s remorse, this paper explores his role in promoting journalistic accounts at the expense of rigorous academic research. Through his close ties with Nasser, immunity against state censorship and control of the daily al-Ahram (1957-1974), Heikal had unrivalled access to information and the institutional platform necessary to formulate the regime’s views and justify its policies. By analyzing Heikal’s editorial role in al-Ahram - through his weekly commentary “bi-Saraha,” his initiative to offer Egypt’s most renowned intellectuals such as Tawfiq al-Hakim positions in his newspaper, and turning it into a closely-monitored arena for publishing controversial works such as Naguib Mahfouz’s Awlad Haretna - this paper shows the ways in which Heikal skillfully used al-Ahram as a mouthpiece for the regime claiming it was a space for critical thinking while engendering a journalistic school drawing on undisclosed sources and privileged private connections with decision-makers in Egypt and around the world. While this paper does not seek to oppose journalism to the university (after all, academics wrote for newspapers, and journalists taught at the university), it is informed by intellectual discussions probing into the consequences of “easy” journalism overshadowing more “serious” academic research (T. Hussein, M. Foucault, P. Bourdieu and R. Barthes). By exploring the institutional changes that contributed to transferring public opinion making from Taha Hussein (who refused to have an office in al-Ahram) to Hassanein Heikal in the 1950s, this paper brings more substance to understanding Egypt’s shift from a parliamentary system to an authoritarian one. It also explores the impact that shift has had over knowledge and cultural production in Egypt – traditionally seen as one of the prominent hubs of Arab culture.