Ari Melber Quotes

Public agencies should be criticized.

I'd like to give anyone else a go at being scrutinised. Daily. It's not easy.

I am not God. Nor am I Phantom. I am ready to accept any criticism. I have been in politics for decades. Each and every day, in several media, there is criticism of me.

The government and the Party are always blaming the comrades doing local work but never themselves, always seeing their own achievements but never their own shortcomings, and always welcoming flattery but never criticism....

Public men are all amenable to the tribunal of the press in a free state. The greater, indeed, their trust, the more respectable are they.

We are ready to be criticised by any journalists because we know we are not perfect.

I don't really trust politicians, and our job is to call them out. It's old-school journalism.

Openness fundamentally affects a lot of the core institutions in society - the media, the economy, how people relate to the government and just their leadership.

All persons who take part in government are accountable for their actions.

Without criticism and reliable and intelligent reporting, the government cannot govern.

Each of us in our time in high office had our ample share of severe critics. But only we actually knew, far better than our worst critics ever dreamed, how truly fallible and all-too-human each of us really was.

With any bureaucracy, an accountable bureaucracy, we need the press and we need critics to keep us on our toes…. we do wish the press to continue to report and continue to criticize because it is only in that way that the government can continue to improve and meet the aspirations of an increasingly affluent society.

Government will have to learn what private businesses are beginning to realize that in this increasingly transparent world, the successful organizations will be those that are able to operate with very few secrets…. The cost of maintaining secrecy is getting higher and higher even when it can be done at all.

The longer presidents go without a press conference, the greater the suspicion that there is something to hide.

Access to government-held information allows citizens to hold their government accountable for policy decisions and public expenditures…. Access to information bridges the gap between state and society ….

America is great precisely because it is an open society, and an open society recognizes that nobody is the ultimate arbiter — and that we may be wrong at times, even if we are powerful. We must be open to criticism and respect divergent and different views and interests.

You ask me why I air your dirty laundry, but you do not ask yourself why you soil it to begin with.

It is only in the freest of nations that people can not only criticize the government, fairly or unfairly, but in extraordinarily few—only the greatest—do the negative criticisms get very wide distribution. Look for the nation where their media are full of criticisms, and there you will find a nation sufficiently free and confident to consider possible improvement from any and all sources.

Facilities have been given me here as never before, the Interstate Commerce People even offering me a desk and stenographer, with full admission to all their published reports and letters. It certainly shows how … a greater care for truth and fairness, which I have tried to attain in my articles, gets hold of people.

A good, hard-hitting dissent keeps you honest.

Strong government doesn't mean simply military power or an efficient intelligence apparatus. Instead, it should mean effective, fair administration - in other words, 'good governance.'

I am not afraid if the criticism concerns what I do wrong, because then I know. Because if you say the King cannot be criticized, it means that the King is not human.

It's not anti-Catholic to question, nor is it anti-Catholic to be honest about the previous shortcomings of the church, because that is the only way we can ensure its strength and dignity moving forward. It is, however, very Catholic to forgive each other and to never stop loving each other.

Netanyahu needs to stand before the Israeli public and say, 'I failed.'

When you do things wrong, even a couple of mistakes, the press has the right to criticise. Much more so when you're a goalkeeper - who remain in the spotlight forever.