98% of the people who get the magazine say they read the cartoons first - and the other 2% are lying.
David RemnickRead
Journalism, some huge percentage of it, should be devoted to putting pressure on power, on nonsense, on chicanery of all kinds and if that's going to invite a lawsuit, well, bring it on.
Interpretation
Journalism should challenge those in power and expose wrongdoing, even if it leads to legal consequences.
This quote emphasizes the role of journalism as a watchdog that holds those in power accountable for their actions. It suggests that a significant portion of journalism should focus on exposing dishonesty and corruption, advocating for the truth, and that potential legal ramifications should not deter journalistic integrity and responsibility.
In practice
In a seminar on ethics, this quote can highlight the importance of journalistic integrity.
98% of the people who get the magazine say they read the cartoons first - and the other 2% are lying.
The world is a crazy, beautiful, ugly complicated place, and it keeps moving on from crisis to strangeness to beauty to weirdness to tragedy. The caravan keeps moving on, and the job of the longform writer or filmmaker or radio broadcaster is to stop - is to pause - and when the caravan goes away, that's when this stuff comes.
Everybody has a cartoon of themselves. Mine is: I write very fast, and I'm ruthlessly efficient with my time.
Every good journalist is aware that his trade may one day go the way of phrenology-and, what's more, the population will hardly protest the extinction.
I don't think journalism changes. It's about digging into stories and telling them well. The basic tenets of great reporting stay the same while things around it change. Technology has made reporting easier, but it has also caused job loss. Social media has increased discussion around topics, but it has its own challenges at times.
I feel no compulsion to be a pundit. As a matter of fact, I really don't have that much to say about most things. Working with hard news satisfies me completely.
I have been asking if I'm an activist or a journalist. And my answer is very simple. I'm just a journalist who asks questions.
I don't believe in these headline-hunting interviews. That's just not my style.
Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It's absolutely unavoidable.
My inclination, as an old-school, classically trained journalist, is not to go with a story unless I have it hard. It's not good enough to say something based on rumors that were flying around.
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