David Attenborough Quotes

Journalists aren't supposed to be cheerleaders.

I am the world's worst reporter. I am apt to try too hard to help rather than just document my subjects.

I'd never compromise my position as a journalist by having a friendly relationship with a politician.

In the end, we journalists try - or should try - to be the first impartial witnesses of history. If we have any reason for our existence, the least must be our ability to report history as it happens so that no one can say: 'we didn't know - no one told us.'

Historians desiring to write the actions of men, ought to set down the simple truth, and not say anything for love or hatred

In a very straightforward way, I am a terrible reporter. I'm not someone who can go into a story and not get involved.

If good history is dispassionate history, it must naturally wait until the passions of the period subside.

Especially when you talk about the power of documentary filmmaking, you can't really have a slant; financially, you can't have a slant on the end goals.

It's a journalist's job to be a witness to history. We're not there to worry about ourselves. We're there to try and get as near as we can, in an imperfect world, to the truth and get the truth out.

Although... the Chief Magistrate must almost of necessity be chosen by a party and stand pledged to its principles and measures, yet in his official action he should not be the President of a party only, but of the whole people of the United States.

I want the news delivered unbiased. I thought that was the whole point with journalism.

Journalists hold themselves apart, and above, the common person. They have rules designed to ensure their objectivity and impartiality.

I do not subscribe to the advocacy journalism school. It's not who I am and not who CNN wants me to be.

The journalistic endeavor - at least theoretically - is grounded in objectivity. The goal is to get you to understand what happened, when and to whom.

What NPR did, I'm very proud of, and what NPR stood for is non-racist, non-bigoted, straightforward telling of the news.

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

Whenever one assumes the role of historian, friendship and enmities have to be forgotten. Often one has to bestow on adversaries the highest praise…. I hope to satisfy … by appealing to the evidence of actual events and of eyewitnesses.

… without animus or partiality.

This system demands that the historian shall describe without indignation the most brutal atrocities, speak without love about the highest virtues and with his glacial eye see in social life only the manifestation of irresistible laws due to which every phenomenon occurs exactly as it inevitably had to occur

The first duty of an historian is to be on his guard against his own sympathies; but he cannot wholly escape their influence.

The good journalist is never objective. He is always neutral.

The Newspaper wants me to by neutral with respect to Germany, as if anyone could be neutral in this war.

You could say that any book that takes a position is not fair, unless you keep saying, 'On the one hand, on the other...' and take a great deal of trouble to present both sides. That kind of journalism tends not to be very interesting.

I write and film history; I don't make it. One can be a good critic and a moral observer, but one remains professionally detached as a writer and a filmmaker.

I want to stress the importance of being fair to our readers. You should not impose your own view and prejudice on the readers and try to lead them to a conclusion. As a reader, I understand what a fair report is.