Quotes About Journalism

Bob Woodward, this is Steve Thomas.

Journalists and the people they cover shouldn't be friends.

Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it.

A short story is a writer's way of thinking through experience... Journalism aims at accuracy, but fiction's aim is truth. The writer distorts reality in the interest of a larger truth.

the media had its narrative before it knew any of the facts

The press had a finger on the scale for Obama, both in the primaries and the general election. They gave him more favorable attention than they gave his opponents. They defended him from attacks, unfair and fair, and criticized his opponents for making them. I don't think that's disputable or surprising.

For me, journalism has been more a matter of projecting a particular approach to covering policies, to covering issues. It was a continuation of what I tried to do in government.

I have no business being a journalist. I'm the least, I'm the least - I'm the most trusting, I absolutely make a habit of believing anything that anybody tells me about themselves. I've never had any reason in the world to think that anyone has wanted to harm me, or lie to me. I believe whatever is being sold, most of the time.

We journalists tell the public which way the cat is jumping. The public will take care of the cat.

Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.

Baudry, editor de Le Siècle. Publica Los tres mosqueteros entre el 14 de marzo y el 11 de julio de 1844.

It must be quite rare for an interviewer to be interviewed.

It's very rare that publications double their frequency.

Things are rarely as exciting or dramatic as we make them out to be in the press.

Professional camera crews are rarely there when a bomb goes off or a rocket lands. They usually show up afterwards.

The First Law of Journalism: to confirm existing prejudice, rather than contradict it.

Dan Rather and I just aren't especially chummy.

I'm pretty sure the last time any anchor could honestly ignore ratings was well before I was born.

I think, today, television is asking too many loaded questions, pushing further for ratings.

What MSNBC is, what cable news prime time has become in the shows that get the ratings, is the oped page of the newspaper.

I'm not rational enough to be a good journalist.

As a journalist, I think it's OK to feel - I think there's space for it. It's how you react to those feelings that's important.

A good journalist, as you know, is a great listener. And so's a good writer. And I got to listen to people for almost 20 years. That serves me well, I hope, when I try to understand how a character might be feeling, or how they might react.

My father was a journalist for 50 years in Leeds and Fleet Street. I thought about a career in business to show I could do something different, but the reaction among prospective employers was, shall we say, underwhelming.