Quotes About Journalism

Most of us will agree that my former medium, television news, has been reduced to tawdry entertainment.

In 1967, my mother - then Francie Weinman - graduated from Northwestern University with a degree from the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. But because she is a woman, the only television news job she could get in her hometown of Chicago was as a secretary at a network affiliate.

I love breaking news. And I was always trying to create the new, the next thing in television news. So I was the first to do overnight news.

Television news is now entertainment, and the stories are being written by the people that have a special interest in them.

Some news managers have been slow to grasp that good television news is always substance over form.

You know, there are not only - all of the networks, and I mean every television news operation and print and radio and magazines, newspapers, all of them, are remiss in the diversity area. I mean, none of these organizations have reached a level of parity.

As a journalist, the details always tell the story.

I am old enough to think the word 'journalist' is not all that noble a designation. Journalist - that record keeper, quote taker and processor of press releases - was, in the world of letters I grew up in, a lower-down job. To be a writer - once the ambition of every journalist - was to be the greater truth teller.

A news organization has a much different responsibility. I might not be telling you the whole story. I might not be telling you a story in a manner that is properly sophisticated.

I keep telling myself to calm down, to take less of an interest in things and not to get so excited, but I still care a lot about liberty, freedom of speech and expression, and fairness in journalism.

If someone tells you something is off the record, I don't print it. If they don't tell me something is off the record, then it's fair game.

You don't get shouted at at the 'Guardian.' Nobody bullies you at the paper; nobody tells you what to write. Now, I love working in that atmosphere; I am free to research and write what I want.

When I was at the 'Philadelphia Inquirer,' I was promoted nine times in my first 13 years. I ultimately went from general assignment to beats on St. Joe's and Temple, to backup writer, to NBA writer, to NBA columnist, to, ultimately, in 2003, to general sports columns.

News in not what happened but a story about what happened.

Vanpelt was a hack. More often than not, she chose the low-hanging fruit, because she was lazy, not interested in doing any real work to uncover facts. She sought out the sensational stories that would get her face front and center on the six and eleven o'clock newscasts.

Dado que la prensa y las cadenas de televisión estadounidenses tampoco querían ser tildadas de «enemigos de la paz», en Occidente muchas todavía no estaban al corriente de la desastrosa desintegración que estaba sufriendo el acuerdo de «paz» de Arafat con Israel, ni sabían por qué los palestinos culpaban a Israel de la matanza de Hebrón.

Hemos cerrado Al Watan por el reportaje sobre el presidente —me comunicó—. El redactor fue detenido por otra cosa… sí, está detenido.» Lo están interrogando. También hemos cerrado Al Istiqlal. Han estado implicados en un delito de desinformación.»

watching and witnessing history and then, despite the dangers and constraints and our human imperfections, recording it as honestly as we can.

Al cabo de dos meses, Daniel estaría muerto, decapitado por sus captores musulmanes después de ser secuestrado por encargo en Karachi, y de que lo obligaran a hablar de su familia judía en la cinta de vídeo de su vil ejecución. Su asesinato fue tan aterrador como truculento.** Volvía a poner de manifiesto no sólo la crueldad de Al Qaeda y sus satélites, sino el grado hasta el que nosotros como periodistas habíamos perdido nuestra inmunidad.

It's a journalist's job to be a witness to history. We're not there to worry about ourselves. We're there to try and get as near as we can, in an imperfect world, to the truth and get the truth out.

Hard to remember these days that there was a time you had to wait for the ink and paper reviews to see your work excoriated. With the invention of the internet, any subliterate cretin can be Michiko Kakutani.

Hard to remember these days that there was a time when you had to wait for the ink and paper reviews to see your work excoriated. With the invention of the internet, any subliterate cretin can be Michiko Kakutani.

Hearst was eager to stoke the flames of conflict between Spain and the United States over Cuba and sent Frederick Remington the photographer, who could find no signs of war. In a famous exchange of cables, Hearst responded to Remington, "You provide the pictures; I'll provide the war."10

magazine, People, Newsday, and the Washington Post. A long-standing member of the Writers Guild of America, he has taught and lectured at colleges and universities nationwide, including the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He also served as visiting lecturer in literature at Claremont McKenna College for