Gwen Ifill Quotes

The function of the New York Times is to enter the battlefield after the battle is over and shoot the wounded.

It's important to make a distinction between the news and journalism. The news is about recent, incidental and sensational events. It's mostly about exceptions.

Journalism is a voyeuristic vocation that attracts to its employment many people who are often naturally shy and insatiably curious, and each day they are assigned to view the world with a critical eye and a detached sense of intimacy.

Journalists prize independence - not teamwork.

Journalists aren't supposed to be cheerleaders.

Most reporters who come to me get their stories directly from press releases. Very few do what one would consider to be their professional duty.

When I was in journalism school, you were taught to be completely objective. But we don't see that anymore.

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.

The reporter is the daily prisoner of clocked facts. On all working days, he is expected to do his best in one swift swipe at each story.

Murrow covered something because it needed coverage. He wasn't trying to get an audience just for the sake of it.

When you speak of the press, of course, you have to speak of different segments of the press. Reporters, straight reporters, wire services, you stick to the facts; you don't create the story, per se. You cover what is happening.

I am a hard-news journalist. That is what I do.

I'm in the business, as a journalist, of asking tough questions.

I'm an expert on the NewsHour and it isn't how I practice journalism. I am not involved in the story. I serve only as a reporter or someone asking questions. I am not the story.

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

When a reporter sits down at the typewriter, he's nobody's friend.

Journalists follow authority as sharks follow a liner, dining on the scraps that are thrown overboard.

The journalist cannot create his subjects any more than the analyst can create his patients.

A journalist covering politics, most of us are aware of the necessity to try to be sure we're unbiased in our reporting. That's one of the fundamentals of good journalism.

My job is to cover the news and do it accurately and fair. And we do.

I have never seen anyone at CNN ever say, 'Boy, here's how we're going to deal with this today to put this guy down and elevate this guy up.' I've never seen it.

I believe there are two kinds of journalists. One who sells a story by being creative, and one who sells a story by being sensationalist.

There are times when I feel that the journalists go overboard to get a bit of juicy news, but I guess that's a part of their work.

I'm doing real journalism.

I invested in the 'Globe' because it is one of the best and most important news organizations in the world. We saw this vividly in the days and weeks after the tragic Boston Marathon bombings, and we also see it in many other ways every day.