Quotes from Bill Kovach

One of the most useful pieces of advice we've learned in our journalism careers is summed up in the phrase beware the fallacy of evil men.

Reality is that which, when you don't believe it, doesn't go away.

Those skills [to test the veracity of news produced], however, can be identified. If we look at those who have been in the business of empiricism - people in journalism, law, intelligence, science, medicine, and elsewhere - we will see a set of common concepts and skills that have developed over generations.

In the 1990s, as it began to feel the impact of cable news and syndicated infotainment programming, network evening newscasts became increasingly focused on tabloid crime and celebrity.

celebrity. The number one topic on network evening newscasts for the decade was crime, even though crime rates nationally were plummeting during the period.

News must also be about solving the problems that confront individuals and the community. There are lines between news and advocacy, but helping solve problems is different from advocacy.

The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.

In newspapers, as various studies have found, stories began to focus less on what candidates said and more on the tactical motives for their statements.

After Vietnam and Watergate, and later the advent of twenty-four-hour cable news, journalism became noticeably more subjective and judgmental.18 Coverage was focused more on mediating what public people were saying than simply reporting it.

The credibility of the work depends on copy editors. I would argue with the copy desk, but I would thank them more.

In the end, the discipline of verification is what separates journalism from entertainment, propaganda, fiction, or art.