Perhaps if all the peoples of the world understand what war really means, we would eliminate it.
Walter CronkiteRead
I can swear on a stack of Bibles that not once in doing the 'CBS Evening News' for 19 years - well, I take it back. Once perhaps. But during 19 years, with perhaps one exception, was I ever aware of any political or commercial pressure on that broadcast whatsoever.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Walter Cronkite emphasizes the independence of journalism from external pressures.
In this quote, Walter Cronkite reflects on his extensive career as a news broadcaster, asserting that his reporting on the 'CBS Evening News' was largely free from political or commercial influence. He acknowledges a rare exception but underscores the importance of maintaining journalistic integrity and objectivity in delivering news to the public, which he considers crucial for a functional democracy.
Themes
JournalismIntegrityFreedomPressureNews
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of independent journalism.
More from Walter Cronkite
All quotes →The death of Churchill at 90 was one of those watershed moments in which the obituary rises to a special calling beyond the sharing of remembered times. It gave an older generation a rare opportunity to explain something of itself to its children.
Walter CronkiteRead
I suppose popularity is measured by ratings. If a broadcaster is known as the leader because of ratings, then that's where people most want to be seen and heard, so there's no question that there's an advantage.
Walter CronkiteRead
Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine.
Walter CronkiteRead
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.
Walter CronkiteRead
I think that our comfort is in our history.
Walter CronkiteRead
Similar quotes
The reality is that the media are probably the most powerful of all our institutions today and they, or rather we [journalists], too often are squandering our power and ignoring our obligations. The consequence of our abdication of responsibility is the ugly spectacle of idiot culture!
Carl BernsteinRead
Americans born since World War II have grown up in a media-saturated environment. From childhood, we have developed a sort of advertising literacy, which combines appreciation for technique with skepticism about motives. We respond to ads with at least as much rhetorical intelligence as we apply to any other form of persuasion.
Virginia PostrelRead
I think people are smart enough to sort it out. They know when they're watching one of these food fight shows where journalists sit around and yell and scream at each other, versus serious issue reporting.
Bob WoodwardRead
The media is too concentrated, too few people own too much. There's really five companies that control 90 percent of what we read, see and hear. It's not healthy.
Ted TurnerRead
The news as entertainment is the real danger, because the truth or accuracy of what it is reporting becomes irrelevant.
Ryan HolidayRead
Even the reporting of news has to be understood not as propaganda for any particular ideology, liberal or conservative, but as propaganda for commodities — for the replacement of things by commodities, use values by exchange values, and events by images.
Christopher LaschRead