One of our worst traits in journalism is that when we have a narrative in our minds, we often plug in anecdotes that confirm it. Thus we managed to portray President Gerald Ford, a first-rate athlete, as a klutz.
Nicholas KristofRead
We journalists are a bit like vultures, feasting on war, scandal and disaster. Turn on the news, and you see Syrian refugees, Volkswagen corruption, dysfunctional government. Yet that reflects a selection bias in how we report the news: We cover planes that crash, not planes that take off.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Journalists often focus on negative events rather than positive ones, leading to a skewed perception of reality.
In this quote, Nicholas Kristof highlights the tendency of journalists to report predominantly on negative news, such as war, corruption, and disasters, akin to vultures circling around these unfortunate events. This creates a selection bias where audiences receive a distorted view of the world, seeing more coverage of crises and failures than of everyday successes and advancements, thus shaping public perception in a less favorable light.
Themes
JournalismNewsBiasNegativityReporting
In practice
Example use cases
During a seminar on media ethics, this quote could be used to illustrate the responsibility journalists have in reporting.
More from Nicholas Kristof
All quotes βA basic element of the American dream is equal access to education as the lubricant of social and economic mobility.
Nicholas KristofRead
Worrying about bills, food, or other problems leaves less capacity to think ahead or to exert self-discipline. So, poverty imposes a mental tax.
Nicholas KristofRead
Most moms and dads, they want to be good moms and dads. But it's an incredibly hard job when you are stressed out, when you are poor, when your life is in chaos. And giving them some of the tools to be better parents, to whittle away at that parenting gap, gives those kids a much better starting point in life.
Nicholas KristofRead
Since the end of the 1970s, something has gone profoundly wrong in America. Inequality has soared. Educational progress slowed. Incarceration rates quintupled. Family breakdown accelerated. Median household income stagnated.
Nicholas KristofRead
The news media's silence, particularly television news, is reprehensible. If we knew as much about Darfur as we do about Michael Jackson, we might be able to stop these things from continuing.
Nicholas KristofRead
Similar quotes
We all have our likes and our dislikes. But... when we're doing news - when we're doing the front-page news, not the back page, not the op-ed pages, but when we're doing the daily news, covering politics - it is our duty to be sure that we do not permit our prejudices to show. That is simply basic journalism.
Walter CronkiteRead
I suppose, in the end, we journalists try - or should try - to be the first impartial witnesses of history. If we have any reason for our existence, the least must be our ability to report history as it happens so that no one can say: 'we didn't know - no one told us.'
Robert FiskRead
Give news a little more time, and don't request that they also, in their news time, entertain. We're not entertainers. We're journalists. And we need more time to do our job well.
Walter CronkiteRead
The greatest felony in the news business today is to be behind, or to miss a big story. So speed and quantity substitute for thoroughness and quality, for accuracy and context.
Carl BernsteinRead
Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It's absolutely unavoidable.
Marguerite DurasRead
The most important ethical issues and the most difficult ones are the human ones because a reporter has enormous power to hurt people.
Carl BernsteinRead