Lester Holt Quotes

Being a reporter is at the very core of a democracy, being a free person in a free society.

A people without reliable news is, sooner or later, a people without the basis of freedom.

No one needs to tell me about the importance of the free press in a democratic society or about the essential role a newspaper can play in its community.

If we don't have a vigorous questioning, aggressive journalistic community and mythology, democracy itself is in great jeopardy.

I don't believe that there's such a thing as objectivity in much of journalism, but I think there is a serious effort to and a regard for facts and into taking that stuff seriously is very important to the public discourse and it's very important to democracy.

Journalism is what we need to make democracy work.

You can't have a free democracy if you don't have a free media that can provide vital and independent information to the people.

There is nothing more important to a democracy than an active and engaged press.

The most important newspapers in this country need to exist. Our democracy needs them. Life as we know it would be unthinkable without them.

The point of journalism is to hold people in positions of power accountable.

Our duty as journalists is to use our clarity - and our imagination - to build hope in the societies in which we work. Our duty is to keep holding power to account, and to fight for press freedom around the world.

The job of the press is to encourage debate, not to supply the public with information.

I have always been of the opinion that the right kind of journalism is a critical part of our democracy.

Widespread public access to knowledge, like public education, is one of the pillars of our democracy, a guarantee that we can maintain a well-informed citizenry.

We in the press have a special role since there is no other institution in our society that can hold the President accountable. I do believe that our democracy can endure and prevail only if the American people are informed.

America is strong because its journalism is strong. That's how democracies work. They're only as good as the quality of the information that the public possesses. And that is where we come in.

I tell you, in my opinion, the cornerstone of democracy is free press - that's the cornerstone.

Journalism is what maintains democracy. It's the force for progressive social change.

Democracies succeed or fail based on their journalism.

When journalists forget that our job is to question and annoy those in power, there can be huge consequences.

Vigorous independent and critical media are indispensable in a democracy.

Whistle-blowing and publishing should not be seen as a crime, and certainly not as terrorism.

The quality of life in America is dependent on the quality of the journalism. Most people don't realize that, but if you think about it, journalism is one of the pillars on which our society is perched.

It is the role of good journalism to take on powerful abusers, and when powerful abusers are taken on, there's always a bad reaction. So we see that controversy, and we believe that is a good thing to engage in.

I don't personally feel that I have to save democracy and journalism.