Michael Moore Quotes

Journalists are supposed to be skeptical, that's what keeps them digging rather than simply accepting the official line, whether it comes from government or corporate bureaucrats.

The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.

Where journalists have gotten themselves in trouble over the last few decades is that their skepticism often extends only to American officials, the U.S. military and Republican politicians.

Two opposite and instructive figures in U.S. journalism during the Trump years are Gerard Baker, editor of the Wall Street Journal, and Martin Baron, editor of the Washington Post.

Journalism is the protection between people and any sort of totalitarian rule. That's why my hero, admittedly a flawed one, is a journalist.

To newspapers and publishing houses I urge the use of fact over fiction, freedom of the press, and responsibility at all times.

The media's job is to question a premise.

We don't go into journalism to be popular. It is our job to seek the truth and put constant pressure on our leaders until we get answers.

I don't trust a lot of journalists.

As journalists, we keep pushing and pushing.

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.

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

A common criticism of establishment journalists entails comparing them to stenographers, on the ground that most of them do little more than mindlessly write down and uncritically repeat what government officials say.

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.

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

As a journalist, one tends to think there's nothing off limits.

Media is just a word that has come to mean bad journalism.

If journalism is good, it is controversial, by its nature.

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.

Journalists should denounce government by public opinion polls.

Using these unnamed sources, if done properly, carefully and fairly, provides more accountability in government.

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.

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

We in the media should be breaking the news and not making the news.

The essence of American journalism is vulgarity divested of truth.