Quotes about journalism and journalists

"Now he is a statesman, when what he really wants is to be what most reporters are, adult delinquents."

Noonan, Peggy on journalism and journalists   

"A professional whose job it is to explain to others what it personally does not understand."

Northcliffe, Lord on journalism and journalists   

"I am a journalist and, under the modern journalist's code of Olympian objectivity (and total purity of motive), I am absolved of responsibility. We journalists don't have to step on roaches. All we have to do is turn on the kitchen light and watch the critters scurry."

O'Rourke, P. J. on journalism and journalists   

"The press is like the air, a chartered libertine."

Pitt, William on journalism and journalists   

"We now demand the light artillery of the intellect; we need the curt, the condensed, the pointed, the readily diffused -- in place of the verbose, the detailed, the voluminous, the inaccessible. On the other hand, the lightness of the artillery should not degenerate into pop-gunnery -- by which term we may designate the character of the greater portion of the newspaper press -- their sole legitimate object being the discussion of ephemeral matters in an ephemeral manner."

Poe, Edgar Allan on journalism and journalists   

"Journalists belong in the gutter because that is where the ruling classes throw their guilty secrets."

Priestland, Gerald on journalism and journalists   

"Europe has a press that stresses opinions; America a press, radio, and television that emphasize news."

Reston, James on journalism and journalists   

"In America journalism is apt to be regarded as an extension of history: in Britain, as an extension of conversation."

Sampson, Anthony on journalism and journalists   

"Journalists are like dogs, when ever anything moves they begin to bark."

Schopenhauer, Arthur on journalism and journalists   

"I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon."

Stoppard, Tom on journalism and journalists
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"Gonzo journalism is a style of reporting based on William Faulkner's idea that the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism -- and the best journalists have always known this. True gonzo reporting needs the talents of a master journalist, the eye of an artist/photographer and the heavy balls of an actor. Because the writer must be a participant in the scene, while he's writing it -- or at least taping it, or even sketching it. Or all three. Probably the closest analogy to the ideal would be a film director/producer who writes his own scripts, does his own camera work and somehow manages to film himself in action, as the protagonist or at least a main character."

Thompson, Hunter S. on journalism and journalists
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"If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people -- including me -- would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism."

Thompson, Hunter S. on journalism and journalists
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"In the real world, nothing happens at the right place at the right time. It is the job of journalists and historians to correct that."

Twain, Mark on journalism and journalists
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"If, for instance, they have heard something from the postman, they attribute it to a semi-official statement; if they have fallen into conversation with a stranger at a bar, they can conscientiously describe him as a source that has hitherto proved unimpeachable. It is only when the journalist is reporting a whim of his own, and one to which he attaches minor importance, that he defines it as the opinion of well-informed circles."

Waugh, Evelyn on journalism and journalists   

"The facts fairly and honestly presented; truth will take care of itself."

White, William Allen on journalism and journalists
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"There is much to be said in favor of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. By carefully chronicling the current events of contemporary life, it shows us of what very little importance such events really are. By invariably discussing the unnecessary, it makes us understand what things are requisite for culture, and what are not."

Wilde, Oscar on journalism and journalists
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"It was a fatal day when the public discovered that the pen is mightier than the paving-stone, and can be made as offensive as the brickbat. They at once sought for the journalist, found him, developed him, and made him their industrious and well-paid servant. It is greatly to be regretted, for both their sakes."

Wilde, Oscar on journalism and journalists   

"Bad manners make a journalist."

Wilde, Oscar on journalism and journalists   

"You cannot hope to bribe or twist (thank God!) the British journalist. But, seeing what the man will do unbribed, there's no occasion to."

Wolfe, Humbert on journalism and journalists   

"I hate journalists. There is nothing in them but tittering jeering emptiness. They have all made what Dante calls the Great Refusal. The shallowest people on the ridge of the earth."

Yeats, William Butler on journalism and journalists   

"Most rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read."

Zappa, Frank on journalism and journalists
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