Barack Obama Quotes

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

When widely followed public figures feel free to say anything, without any fact-checking, it becomes impossible for a democracy to think intelligently about big issues.

The media's job is to question a premise.

The Petersons have not come forward in the press. Apparently they feel the media bears a large responsibility for Scott's conviction. It may be a while before we hear anything from them.

Sometimes, when you see the newspaper and you read something I said, you say, 'Oh, I can't believe he said that.'

It still surprises me when I find something in any North Carolina newspaper that isn't mad at me about something.

The American people would not want to know of any misquotes that Dan Quayle may or may not make.

I made a decision when I ran for president that I wouldn't whine about my coverage in the media, and I never did.

The public interest is not defined as what is interesting to the public.

I don't think it's in any way harmful, this marriage of media and politicians. I think it enhances the communications process considerably and makes it possible for the public to be far more aware, far more up-to-date on issues and the opposite sides of the issues.

Of course the Liberal Democrats are going to say things to try and get attention - but I don't think the country is paying much attention.

The press has a right to go out and write stories... but I think similarly, and what Donald Trump has proven... is that when people are wrong, he's going to hold them accountable, and he's going to correct the record.

Ignore Trump's tweets. Yes, it's unrealistic. But we would all be better off if the media reported them more rarely, reacted to them less strongly, and treated them with less alarm and more bemusement.

The presidential and vice-presidential debates are those rare moments when people come together, but to even call them debates is a stretch because they're played by such negotiated rules, and they're so over-rehearsed.

Politicians should aim for higher discourse, the media should report context instead of seeking to inflame the public, and the public should not reward bad behavior nor engage in it on social media.

I'm not sure I buy the argument that the public is more mistrustful - the debate will always garner that kind of traction because anything the BBC does is always in the spotlight.

When you have Candidate A saying the sky is blue, and Candidate B saying it's a cloudy day, I look outside and I see, well, it's a cloudy day. I should be able to tell my viewers, 'Candidate A is wrong, Candidate B is right,' and not have to say, 'Well, you decide.' Then it would be like I'm an idiot.

For all the talk about, and appeals to, Trump fans who wanted to watch the press corps bullied and bashed, most Americans don't want that. They never did. Most Americans want to know what is real and true so that they can make the best decisions for their families.

I think Donald Trump is a complete and utter buffoon and a cancer to our society.

I think the worst thing [Donald Trump]did was the tweet the other night about illegal votes.

The media loves to spend a lot of time talking about itself and do a lot of navel-gazing, which the general public isn't quite that interested in. They aren't really particularly concerned with whether our feelings are hurt or the things that we complain about. They have their own lives and their own jobs that are difficult as well. I think where the media has gotten itself in trouble is the sense that they're much more interested in things like parsing words and getting into fights about little minutia, as opposed to stepping back and seeing what the big picture is.

The idea of what the public will think prevents the public from ever thinking at all, and acts as a spell on the exercise of private judgment.

Whether that's questioning the dominant opinion of the day, the conventional wisdom of the day, or whether it's questioning the policies that come out of Washington, or out of our government, generally, I think media's job is to look at it and say, "What's really going on here? What's the story behind what you see?"

They have to put Trump on every program, spewing his crazy ideas, because his poll numbers are so high. And his poll numbers are so high because they put him on every program, spewing his crazy ideas.

Some speak of the public as if it were someone with whom they have had dinner at the Leipzig Fair in the Hotel de Saxe. Who is this public? The public is not a thing, but rather an idea, a postulate, like the Church.