Quotes & Sayings About Newspapers Journalism

I think that money is devoted to serious journalism, with analysis, interestingly presented, by good writers can still sell newspapers. — Phillip Knightley

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. — Thomas Jefferson

Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another. — Gilbert K. Chesterton

In the world of journalism, the personal Web site ("blog") was hailed as the killer of the traditional media. In fact it has become hailed as the killer of the traditional media. In fact it has become something quite different. Far from replacing newspapers and magazines, the best blogs-and the best are very clever- have become guides to them, pointing to unusual sources and commenting on familiar ones. They have become mediators for the informed public. — Fareed Zakaria

Don't tell me about the Press. I know *exactly* who reads the papers. The Daily Mirror is read by the people who think they run the country. The Guardian is read by people who think they *ought* to run the country. The Times is read by the people who actually *do* run the country. The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country. The Financial Times is read by people who *own* the country. The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by *another* country. The Daily Telegraph is read by the people who think it is.'

"Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?"

"Sun readers don't care *who* runs the country - as long as she's got big tits. — Antony Jay

The newspapers! Sir, they are the most villainous - licentious - abominable - infernal - Not that I ever read them - no - I make it a rule never to look into a newspaper. — Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Th' newspaper does ivrything f'r us. It runs th' polis foorce an' th' banks, commands th' milishy, controls th' ligislachure, baptizes th' young, marries th' foolish, comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable, buries th' dead an' roasts thim aftherward. — Finley Peter Dunne

I think that of all the principles for journalism, the most important is to complicate simple things and simplify complicated things. At first sight, you may think something is simple, but it may conceal a great deal. However, facing a very complex thing, you should find out its essence. -Jin Yongquan — Judy Polumbaum

One of the cardinal rules of journalism: Once you have cabled a story you must stick by it and back it up, unless something completely overwhelming proves you to have been wrong. In such a case, just drop the matter. — Wynant Davis Hubbard

God, newspapers have been making up stories forever. This kind of trifling and fooling around is not a function of the New Journalism. — Tom Wolfe

I'm sure it's all journalism [ ... ] It means it's true enough for now. — Terry Pratchett

Do not read the newspapers. — Henry David Thoreau

It's not the news that makes the newspaper, but the newspaper that makes the news. — Umberto Eco

What you read in the newspapers, hear on the radio and see on television, is hardly even the truth as seen by experts; it is the wishful thinking of journalists, seen through filters of prejudice and ignorance. — Hans Jurgen Eysenck

As the final computerized decade of the twentieth century came into view, time itself seemed to speed up and compress into smaller and smaller bytes, leaving less and less time over the breakfast table to ruminate on the fascinating aboriginal lore from the Australian outback or on the clandestine Israeli airlift of Ethiopian Jews out of southern Sudan. Readers preferred news that affected their own lives and they wanted it now. Leisure time was a luxury that fewer and fewer times subscribers enjoyed. — Dennis McDougal

Yes, the disruption of the Internet can be blamed for the destruction of the business model that once made journalism a thriving, well-paying enterprise, but it has also created an array of new tools for reporting. Somebody will eventually figure out how to make online newspapers profitable - I hope. — David Horsey

Journalism is a great profession. It's complicated now. People talk about the demise of investigative reporting. I was a judge in some award contest recently, and the stuff that is being done by major newspapers, and local, regional papers around the country, is great. Newspapers play an amazing role in our society, and I still think they are important. I'm sorry newspaper circulation is down. Ultimately, the importance of newspapers can't be replaced. — Seymour Hersh

The invariable question, asked only half-mockingly of reporters by editors at the Post (and then up the hierarchical line of editors) was 'What have you done for me today?' Yesterday was for the history books, not newspapers.
Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward — Carl Bernstein

It's important to remember that the future of quality journalism is not dependent on the future of newspapers. The discussion needs to move from "How do we save newspapers?" to "How do we save and strengthen journalism?" - however it is delivered. — Arianna Huffington

But journalists thrive on not knowing exactly what the future holds. That's part of the excitement. Something interesting, something important, will happen somewhere, as sure as God made sour apples, and a good aggressive newspaper will become part of that something. — Ben Bradlee

But newspapers have a duty to truth,' Van said.
Lev clucked his tongue. 'They tell the truth only as the exception. Zola wrote that the mendacity of the press could be divided into two groups: the yellow press lies every day without hesitating. But others, like the Times, speak the truth on all inconsequential occasions, so they can deceive the public with the requisite authority when it becomes necessary.'
Van got up from his chair to gather the cast-off newspapers. Lev took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. 'I don't mean to offend the journalists; they aren't any different from other people. They're merely the megaphones of the other people. — Barbara Kingsolver

I would tell young journalists to be brave and go against the tide. When everyone else is relying on the internet, you should not; when nobody's walking, you should walk; when few people are reading profound books, you should read ... rather than seeking a plusher life you should pursue some hardship. Eat simple food. When everyone's going for quick results, pursue things of lasting value. Don't follow the crowd; go in the opposite direction. If others are fast, be slow.
Jin Yongquan — Judy Polumbaum

Now listen,' said George angrily, 'I've been in a newspaper office all evening and I know better than you what's going on.'

'Nonsense. If there's one place in the world where nobody knows what's going on, it's a newspaper office. — Jack Iams

Jessamine recoiled from the paper as if it were a snake. "A lady does not read the newspaper. The society pages, perhaps, or the theater news. Not this filth."
"But you are not a lady, Jessamine
," Charlotte began.
"Dear me," said Will. "Such harsh truths so early in the morning cannot be good for the digestion. — Cassandra Clare

You've only got to be in public life for about a week before you start to question if the newspapers are even giving you today's date with any accuracy! — Jonathan Lynn

Chicago, with its big newspapers and major broadcasting stations, couldn't have been a better city to start a journalism career. — Irv Kupcinet

Newspapers, of course, need both news and fanfare. A blending of gossip and truth. — Paul Tobin

I think newspapers shouldn't try to compete directly with the Web, and should do what they can do better, which may be long-form journalism and using photos and art, and making connections with large-form graphics and really enhancing the tactile experience of paper. — Dave Eggers

In the '50s and '60s, journalism wasn't a profession. It wasn't something you went to college for - it was really more of a trade. You had a lot of guys who came up working in newspapers at the copy desk, or delivery boys, and then they would somehow become reporters afterward and learn on the job. — Matt Taibbi

Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its service, but not one man. — Henry David Thoreau

I think I know what military fame is; to be killed on the field of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers. — William T. Sherman

Think of it: television producers joining with newspapers to tell stories. It's journalism of the future. Advertising will follow the crowd - the 'crowd' being viewers and readers, of course, which could bring revenue back into journalism. — Bill Kurtis

I used to think the most important thing for a reporter was to be where the news is and be the first to know. Now I feel a reporter should be able to effect change. Your reporting should move people and motivate people to change the world. Maybe this is too idealistic. Young people who want to be journalists must, first, study and, second, recognize that they should never be the heroes of the story..A journalist must be curious, and must be humble.
Zhou Yijun — Judy Polumbaum

Poetry, the best of it, is lunar and is concerned with the essential insanities. Journalism is solar (there are numerous newspapers named The Sun, none called The Moon) and is devoted to the inessential. — Tom Robbins

The newspaper journalists like to believe the worst; they can sell more papers that way, as one of them told me himself; for even upstanding and respectable people dearly love to read ill of others. — Margaret Atwood

I hope we never live to see the day when a thing is as bad as some of our newspapers make it. — Will Rogers

When radio keeps silent, our ears shall never hear the real details! — Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Society doesn't need newspapers. What we need is journalism ... When we shift our attention from 'save newspapers' to 'save society,' the imperative changes from 'preserve the current institutions' to 'do whatever works.' And what works today isn't the same as what used to work. — Clay Shirky

Interviews were invented to make journalism less passive. Instead of waiting for something to happen, journalists ask someone what should or could happen. — Mokokoma Mokhonoana

How can people trust social media over newspapers today? — Joel Landau

Our stable and eternal verities are being challenged. There's a kind of postmodern breakdown in journalism. The breadth of information sources and the speed of transmission are growing; but the traditional gravity of news has eroded. -Jin Yongquan — Judy Polumbaum

I'd been involved in journalism for a long time - my dad's a journalist, he's written many books, and when I was twelve years old I wrote reports on local football matches for the newspapers. — Colum McCann

As touchy as cabaret performers and as stubborn as factory machinists ... — Tom Rachman

The friends of tabloid newspapers often point out that their journalism exists only because millions of people pay money to read it. — Nick Davies

The best fiction is far more true than any journalism. — William Faulkner

People accuse journalism of being too personal; but to me it has always seemed far too impersonal. It is charged with tearing away the veils from private life; but it seems to me to be always dropping diaphanous but blinding veils between men and men. The Yellow Press is abused for exposing facts which are private; I wish the Yellow Press did anything so valuable. It is exactly the decisive individual touches that it never gives; and a proof of this is that after one has met a man a million times in the newspapers it is always a complete shock and reversal to meet him in real life. — Gilbert K. Chesterton

In almost all other professions a man must be able to observe carefully and report accurately what he has seen. Those qualifications are unnecessary for journalists, however, since their job is to write sensational stories that sell newspapers. — Robert Anton Wilson

People sometimes imagine that just because they have access to so many newspapers, radio and TV channels, they will get an infinity of different opinions. Then they discover that things are just the opposite: the power of these loudspeakers only amplifies the opinion prevalent at a certain time, to the point where it covers any other opinion. — Amin Maalouf

I became a journalist because I did not want to rely on newspapers for information. — Christopher Hitchens

Media work needs ideals. Maybe thirty years from now, after I retire, I'll see the media mature and make the transition from political party, interest group, and corporate to truly public. But over the next ten years, the encroachment of commercialism and worldliness will loom much larger than the democratization we imagine. -Jin Yongquan in China Ink — Judy Polumbaum

If political cartoonists continue to rely on newspapers, we may be in serious trouble. It's a very transferable form of journalism, though - it works great on Web sites. — David Horsey

I think journalism anywhere should be based on social justice and impartiality, making contributions to society as well as taking responsibility in society. Whether you are capitalist or socialist or Marxist, journalists should have the same professional integrity.
Tan Hongkai — Judy Polumbaum

As the newspaper industry continues to contract, one of the most commonly voiced fears is that serious investigative journalism will be among the victims of the scaleback. And, indeed, many newspapers are drastically reducing their investigative teams. — Arianna Huffington

No news is good news. No journalists is even better. — Nicolas Bentley

A free press doesn't mean it's not a tame press. — Andrew Vachss

As the saying goes: "If you're not part of the solution, you're a newspaper columnist." — Dave Barry

I'm an old newspaper-man myself, but I quit because I found there was no money in old newspapers. — Jack Benny