I don't think there will ever be a permanent truce, but I believe the media needs to be more careful and be willing to count to 10 before rushing on the air or into print.
Bob WoodwardRead
Newspapers that are truly independent, like The Washington Post, can still aggressively investigate anyone or anything with no holds barred.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of independent journalism in holding power accountable without restrictions.
Bob Woodward highlights the critical role of independent newspapers, such as The Washington Post, in conducting fearless investigations. This independence allows them to scrutinize individuals and institutions rigorously, ensuring that the truth prevails and that the public remains informed without bias or censorship.
In practice
This quote can be cited in a speech about the importance of press freedom.
I don't think there will ever be a permanent truce, but I believe the media needs to be more careful and be willing to count to 10 before rushing on the air or into print.
There's hostility to lying, and there should be.
The legislator learns that when you talk a lot, you get in trouble. You have to listen a lot to make deals.
The central dilemma in journalism is that you don't know what you don't know.
I'm not going to name some of my colleagues who are very well-known for their television presentation, but they wouldn't know new information or how to report a story if it came up and bit them.
Using these unnamed sources, if done properly, carefully and fairly, provides more accountability in government.
I don't think that my kind of journalism has ever been universally popular. It's lonely out here.
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.
The Post-Dispatch will serve no party but the people; be no organ of Republicanism, but the organ of truth; will follow no causes bit its conclusions; will not support the Administration, but criticize it; will oppose all frauds and shams wherever or whatever they are; will advocate principles and ideas rather than prejudices and partisanship.
Helping set the day's agenda and deciding what we used and editing it, that was a journalistic high point. I liked reporting as well. Just doing the news - the live performance - wasn't important. Working on the desk was.
In the normal course of things, journalists want their story, and as soon as they are through with it, they pack their cameras and go. That was never the impression that David Astor gave when you were interviewed by him. It was far deeper than that.
Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It's absolutely unavoidable.
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