Quotes: Journalism

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Journalism
Journalism 21 Rule of journalistic interviews. "I understood the meeting to be off the record, but Arthur had evidently said it was “on background”—meaning that the reporters could publish what they heard as long as they did not attribute it directly to me." McNamara’s In Retrospect

Journalism 158 "Journalism is the ability to meet the challenge of filling space." Rebecca West. Portable Curmudgeon.

Journalism 237 Rock journalism defined. "Most rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read." Frank Zappa.

Journalism 319 One view of journalism. "...our newspapers and newspaper writers...give us the bald, sordid, disgusting facts of life...chronicle, with degrading avidity, the sins of the second-rate...and with the conscientiousness of the illiterate give us accurate and prosaic details of the doings of people of absolutely no interest whatsoever." Oscar Wilde, “ ‘The True Critic’.” 1891. Gross, ed. Essays.

Journalism 510 How many ways can you attribute without revealing the actual sources? " …usual to evoke as authority some anonymous source…have heard something from the postman, they attribute it to a ‘semi-official statement’; if they have fallen into conversation with a stranger at a bar, they can conscientiously describe him as ‘a source that has hitherto proved unimpeachable’ …only when the journalist is reporting a whim of his own…that he defines it as the opinion of ‘well-informed circles.’ " Evelyn Waugh. “Well-Informed Circles…And How to Move In them.” 1939. Gross, ed. Essays.

Journalism 511 Citing "nobodys" as experts. "When [citing] celebrities fail[s] [to be convincing], it is always possible to introduce quite unknown names with such an air of authority that no one dares challenge you." Evelyn Waugh. “Well-Informed Circles…And How to Move In them.” 1939. Gross, ed. Essays.