<= Previous | November Issues Index | Next =>
Your Quotes for 3 November 2005 - Journalism

The journalist James Barrett Reston was born on this day in 1909 at Clydebank, Scotland, so a Journalism theme came to mind. But today is also the anniversary of what is probably the most famous headline in American journalism, "Dewey Defeats Truman". That was set about three inches tall across the full width of the Chicago Tribune on this day in 1948. Despite Scotty Reston's accomplishments (fifty years with the New York Times and a pair of Pulitzers), that headline means we have to take a poke at the working press today.

I take a grave view of the press. It is the weak slat under the bed of democracy.
     - A. J. Liebling, 1904 - 1963

Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once.
     - Cyril Connolly, 1903 - 1974

How is the world ruled and how do wars start? Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what they read.
     - Karl Kraus

Journalism justifies its own existence by the great Darwinian principle of the survival of the vulgarist.
     - Oscar Wilde, 1854 - 1900

Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your honor. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.
     - Mark Twain, 1835 - 1910

No news is good news. No journalists is even better.
     - Nicolas Bentley

Would you like to see quotes like these in your mail tomorrow morning? Our 10,000 loyal subscribers hate to miss a day, perhaps you should sign up now! No cost or obligation, just be open to the enlightenment waiting for you among our 22,500+ quotes.