Sydney Schanberg Quotes

In most daily journalism, you only fact-check something if it seems a little fishy.

Just because someone says something, whether it's at the podium during the briefing or the president tweets, I can't always assume that's factual. That's insane. We have to be very quick on our toes in fact checking.

When we hear news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.

In my career, I do not stop for news when it's not true.

People in the news media after I got caught said how could you have not caught this guy? He had 50 corrections in four years. That's a lot of corrections. Well what they failed to look at is how many stories there were and out of 700 plus stories, 50 corrections is not a high amount.

I've learned the hard way at the national level that any erroneous statement will very quickly be magnified. So, as someone who talks for a living, I've learned to check, double-check and triple-check my sources.

My inclination, as an old-school, classically trained journalist, is not to go with a story unless I have it hard. It's not good enough to say something based on rumors that were flying around.

Many a good newspaper story has been ruined by over verification.

Good reporting should have the same standard as in a courtroom - beyond a reasonable doubt.

You shouldn't use anything as the sole source for anything, in my view.

It's impossible for an editor to know every source for every story.

Just because it's in print doesn't mean it's the gospel.

Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong.

You can’t report on something that you don’t know about.

Our job is to get as close to the verified truth as is possible.

Never affirm anything unless you are sure it is true

… he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him.

Certainly in my own body of reporting, I was very acutely aware of the risk of any mischaracterized journalism and the need for anything I put out to be absolutely bulletproof.

Every fact in my films is true. And yet how often do I have to read over and over again about supposed falsehoods?

I have great admiration for the fact-checking team. Considering it takes me years to gather all the facts in my books, it's a daunting task for the fact-checkers to review all of that material in a matter of weeks.

Journalists who swallow the subject's account whole and publish it are not journalists but publicists.

I don't give false claims any due.

If something is presented as a fact, it has to be correct.

It's irresponsible to put uncorroborated information on the Internet.

You check off stories to make sure if they're true or if they're right.