Television makes so much at its worst that it can't afford to do its best.

- Fred W. Friendly

A composite is a euphemism for a lie. It's disorderly. It's dishonest and it's not journalism.

- Fred W. Friendly

I have a motto: My job is not to make up anybody's mind but to make the agony of decision making so intense that you can escape only by thinking.

- Fred W. Friendly

While the Constitution is what the judges say it is, a public issue is something that Walter Cronkite or John Chancellor recognizes as such. The medi…

- Fred W. Friendly

No mighty king, no ambitious emperor, no pope, or prophet ever dreamt of such an awesome pulpit, so potent a magic wand.

- Fred W. Friendly

TV is bigger than any story it reports. It's the greatest teaching tool since the printing press.

- Fred W. Friendly

Today's reporter is forced to become an educator more concerned with explaining the news than with being first on the scene.

- Fred W. Friendly

What we don't know as a nation and as a citizen can kill us.

- Fred W. Friendly

The news is the one thing the networks can point to with pride. Everything else they do is crap, and they know it.

- Fred W. Friendly