Quotes About Reporting

Simply stated, sometimes journalists can only get their information from informants who must remain anonymous in order to protect their careers and sometimes even their lives: Watergate: Confidential sources. The Pentagon Papers: Confidential sources. Enron: Confidential sources.

I know that from the days of Watergate... the notion of two sources on a story has become the popular dogma about how you confirm something. And there is a lot of truth to that, but there are all kinds of ways to check to the extent that you can, a story that you get.

In hindsight, Watergate was a curse as well as a blessing for American journalism. The courageous reporting of the 'Post' and the 'New York Times' - coupled with the favourable Supreme Court rulings on publication of the Pentagon Papers - were landmarks for the interpretation of First Amendment rights and the freedom of the press.

I think journalism is a great way to do public service, to have an impact on your community.

For all that we can see from the road in China, there is a lot that we cannot see. We miss what's behind the trees, the cover-ups, the darker side of things - the ingredients that so often drive a reporting trip.

There have been many times when we have not run stories because we cannot get it verified.

Journalism keeps you planted in the earth.

The media has a key role to play in ending corruption.

Journalism is a messy business. For every prize-winning story there's plenty of gossip and garbage.

More and more, journalism seems to have hopped out of Truth's pocket and crept into another.

With 'Clinton Cash,' we never really broke a story.

Breaking news on live TV is a roller coaster.

It's not in my place to comment on what the media says. You can write whatever you want to write. I'd just rather it be the truth.

The problems of reporting a bully - or, if you are a bully, of becoming less of one - become much more intractable, because your reputation surrounds you, and behavioral patterns are harder to escape.

One of the facts about sexual assault is that it is a very underreported offense, and there are a whole lot of reasons why individuals don't report to law enforcement. Uber shouldn't make that choice for survivors. Survivors should make that choice for themselves.

Remember: If the IRS suspects you haven't reported income, it can challenge returns from the past six years. So if you are self-employed or have multiple income sources, hold on to six years of files to be absolutely safe.

When interviewing for a job, tell the editor how you love to report. How your passion is gathering information. Do not mention how you want to be a writer, use the word 'prose,' or that deep down you have a sinking suspicion you are the next Norman Mailer.

If you are a journalist, check and double-check your sources. Don't just swallow what politicians tell you.

Journalists who swallow the subject's account whole and publish it are not journalists but publicists.

In fact, I spent 25 years as a reporter, swearing I would never become an editor. Sitting at a desk, watching other people go out and find the story, and then fussing with other people's words - I just didn't get the appeal of that.

In journalism it is simpler to sound off than it is to find out. It is more elegant to pontificate than it is to sweat.

The understanding of Syria's devastating civil war has been distorted by the immense danger and difficulty of covering it.

I'm astonished by how much journalists stay with the story, try to get to the truth of the story, maybe give years of their life to it, maybe go over to Syria, maybe lose their life. Then, the next day, it's a new story.

We journalists are a bit like vultures, feasting on war, scandal and disaster. Turn on the news, and you see Syrian refugees, Volkswagen corruption, dysfunctional government. Yet that reflects a selection bias in how we report the news: We cover planes that crash, not planes that take off.