George W. Bush Quotes

Democracies succeed or fail based on their journalism.

The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It's not our job to cozy up to power. We're supposed to be the check and balance on government.

I respect the press. The press and the media are a very useful watchdog to check the power of the government.

The fourth estate which if not well looked to, will turn us all out of doors.

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

The function of a newspaper in a democracy is to stand as a sort of chronic opposition to the reigning quacks.

The press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. One would then like to ask: by what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible?

We need a free press. We must have it. It's vital.

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

The task of the media in a democracy is not to ease the path of those who govern, but to make life difficult for them by constant vigilance as to how they exercise the power they only hold in trust from the people.

I am not here to accuse the media of anything.

I respect very much the role of the media in our society; I think they can be very, very helpful. They serve as a very useful check, sort of a watchdog over the actions of the government, and I respect that.

Vigorous independent and critical media are indispensable in a democracy.

Our press has too much freedom …. Democracy is a very lovely thing for a developed people.

The media is like the terrain and weather. It is a fact; it's nothing you can change. You have to learn to deal with it. And it isn't bad or good, it's just there. I don't think we should put limits on the press, unless it's for security reasons or for reasons of risk in the case of an operation. We value freedom of the press. It's something we are fighting for. It's part of the constitutional rights that we swear our allegiance to. We just have to accept it and learn to deal with it in a right way, and give and take.

The U.S. corporate media, otherwise known as the "free press," is that hollow pillar on which contemporary American democracy rests.

I have never quite grasped the worry about the power of the press. After all, it speaks with a thousand voices, in constant dissonance.

The rules are all wrong today. The mandate of the media really does pre-date the founding of the United States.

As far as the media is concerned, I wouldn't shoot anything down.

A key purpose of journalism is to provide an adversarial check on those who wield the greatest power by shining a light on what they do in the dark, and informing the public about those acts.

The media does play a vital role in our democracy, and if we cannot depend on journalistic ethics, the nation's in trouble.

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.

A free and truly independent press - fiercely independent when necessary - is the red beating heart of freedom and democracy.

I take a grave view of the press. It is the weak slat under the bed of democracy.

Incorruptibility by money is the old story... Now it's incorruptibility by media.