Martha MacCallum Quotes

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 most sacred cow of the press is the press itself

The media's job is to question a premise.

The Times has much less power than you think. I believe we attribute power to the media generally that it simply doesn't have. It's very convenient to blame the media, the same way we blame television for everything that's going wrong in society.

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

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.

We do not need a censorship of the press. We have a censorship by the press.

It’s always a danger when an institution like the press becomes disconnected from the people.

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

We in the media accept the responsibility of what we do.

The job of the press is to encourage debate, not to supply the public with information.

Journalists aren't supposed to be cheerleaders.

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'm not seeing tough questions asked on American television. I'm not seeing those correspondents that would question those in power. It's like a club. We are not asking the tough questions.

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

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

I absolutely reject that idea that the press is liberal and what it does is liberal. In my view, it's like accusing a doctor of malpractice or a lawyer of malfeasance.

I am not here to accuse the media of anything.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.