C. J. McCollum Quotes

In a way, I think of the press as my colleagues. I don't want to throw hand grenades at people who do something that's pretty similar to what I do. But at the same time, we all need to take ourselves seriously and be responsible as professionals. And there was a collective failure in the treatment of Christopher Jefferies.

I think there are a lot of reasons to be critical of the media in America.

Given what the media have put the country through this past decade, it must come as a surprise to most Americans that the press has a code of ethics.

I used to think the press was a necessary evil and now I don't think it is. I think it's something you choose.

Well, thank God for a media that will ask questions.

I am not here to accuse the media of anything.

If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast.

You hope the American people are fair. We recognize journalists have to kill somebody each week.

Being beyond politics, I am able to examine the role of the media without worrying about the indignant harrumphing that emanates from many journalists and commentators when you do so.

The press has a right to go out and write stories... but I think similarly, and what Donald Trump has proven... is that when people are wrong, he's going to hold them accountable, and he's going to correct the record.

The job of the press is to defend their institution, hold the government accountable and freely report and gather information.

I am a journalist and, under the modern journalist's code of Olympian objectivity (and total purity of motive), I am absolved of responsibility. We journalists don't have to step on roaches. All we have to do is turn on the kitchen light and watch the critters scurry.

I'm very much in support of the free press, but the free press ought to be educational and informative. And I believe they have fallen down recently on that.

I think the media needs a little criticizing now, as it did in the '80s, don't you?

Democracies succeed or fail based on their journalism.

Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.

I am a passionate believer in freedom of speech. I would not support anything which would impinge on aggressive robust freedom of the British press, but when things go wrong and there has been outright illegality, there should be proper accountability.

I'm not going to make general comments about the British press.

The press is a watchdog. Not an attack dog. Not a lapdog. A watchdog. Now, a watchdog can't be right all the time. He doesn't bark only when he sees or smells something that's dangerous. A good watchdog barks at things that are suspicious.

You turn on the TV, and you see very bland interviews. Journalists in the United States are very cozy with power, very close to those in power.

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 happen to believe that any legitimate news organization in the world would do that interview. And if the United States is going to be a proponent of a free press, it has to walk the walk.

The press are scum.

American newspapers are so filthy and bestial that no honest man would admit one into his house for a water-closet doormat.

The chief danger which threatens the influence and honor of the press is the tendency of its liberty to degenerate into license.