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Journalism
- If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it.1942– British Conservative politician: statement, London, 10 April 1995, in Times 11 April 1995
- Anyone here been raped and speaks English?shouted by a British TV reporter in a crowd of Belgian civilians waiting to be airlifted out of the Belgian Congo, c.1960: Edward Behr Anyone Here been Raped and Speaks English? (1981)
- When seagulls follow a trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.1966– French footballer: to the media at the end of a press conference, 31 March 1995
- Journalism largely consists in saying ‘Lord Jones Dead’ to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.1874–1936 English essayist, novelist, and poet: The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914)
- When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.Johnsonand American screenwriters: The Man who Shot Liberty Valance (1962 film); see also
- Go to where the silence is and say something.accepting an award from Columbia University for her coverage of the 1991 massacre in East Timor by Indonesian troops1957– American journalist: in Columbia Journalism Review March/April 1994
- You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war.message to the artist Frederic Remington in Havana, Cuba, during the Spanish-American War of 18981863–1951 American newspaper publisher and tycoon: attributed
- There is one sacred rule of journalism. The writer must not invent. The legend on the licence must read: None of this was made up.1914–93 American journalist and novelist: ‘The Legend on the Licence’ in Yale Review vol. 70, 1980
- Editor: a person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.1859–1915 American writer: The Roycroft Dictionary (1914)
- Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.1743–1826 American Democratic Republican statesman, 3rd President 1801–9: letter to James Currie, 28 January 1786, in Papers of Thomas Jefferson (1954) vol. 9
- Power without responsibility: the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.summing up Lord Beaverbrook's political standpoint as a newspaper editor; Stanley Baldwin, Kipling's cousin, subsequently obtained permission to use the phrase in a speech, 18 March 19311865–1936 English writer and poet: in Kipling Journal vol. 38, no. 180, December 1971
- The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm.1800–59 English politician and historian: Essays Contributed to the Edinburgh Review (1843) vol. 1 ‘Hallam’
- Listen folks, I'm going to have to stop for a minute, because I've lost my voice—This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed.eyewitness account of the Hindenburg disasterd. 1989 American radio announcer: recorded broadcast, 6 May 1937
- It is not necessary to remind you that the fact that your voice is amplified to the degree where it reaches from one end of the country to the other does not confer upon you greater wisdom or understanding than you possessed when your voice reached only from one end of the bar to the other.often quoted as ‘Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar‘1908–65 American broadcaster and journalist: speech to Radio and Television News Directors Association, Chicago, 15 October 1958
- I—like every politician at the federal level—am almost entirely dependent on the media to reach my constituents…I am who the media says I am. I say what they say I say. I become who they say I've become.1961– American Democratic statesman, 44th President from 2009: The Audacity of Hope (2006)
- Journalists belong in the gutter because that is where the ruling classes throw their guilty secrets.1927–91 English writer and journalist: in Observer 22 May 1988
- A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself.inscribed on the gateway to the Columbia School of Journalism in New York1847–1911 Hungarian-born American newspaper proprietor and editor: W. J. Granberg The World of Joseph Pulitzer (1965)
- The men with the muck-rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck.Bunyan1858–1919 American Republican statesman, 26th President 1901–9: speech in Washington, 14 April 1906; see
- Comment is free, but facts are sacred.Stoppard1846–1932 British journalist: in Manchester Guardian 5 May 1921; see
- Comment is free but facts are on expenses.Scott1937– British dramatist: Night and Day (1978) act 2; see
- All newspaper and journalistic activity is an intellectual brothel from which there is no retreat.1828–1910 Russian novelist: letter to Prince V. P. Meshchersky, 22 August 1871
- There are laws to protect the freedom of the press's speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press.1835–1910 American writer: ‘License of the Press’ (1873)
- Journalism—an ability to meet the challenge of filling the space.1892–1983 English novelist and journalist: in New York Herald Tribune 22 April 1956
- You cannot hope
to bribe or twist,
thank God! the
British journalist.
the man will do
unbribed, there's
no occasion to.1886–1940 British poet: ‘Over the Fire’ (1930) - Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read.Capp1940–93 American rock musician and songwriter: in Toronto Star 24 September 1977; see