Linda Chavez Quotes

I like BuzzFeed, and I understand the pressure that online reporters are under. But I think everyone agrees that, despite all the awesome kitten gifs, they're still obligated to be skeptical of government officials and ask the right questions.

To newspapers and publishing houses I urge the use of fact over fiction, freedom of the press, and responsibility at all times.

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 most important responsibility we have as journalists is to question those who are in power. I honestly believe that.

As journalists, we cannot swallow the official line without question. We should challenge almost everything that dictators, presidents and officials say.

I respect the press. The press and the media are a very useful watchdog to check the power of the government.

The media's job is to question a premise.

Nothing is more idealistic than a journalist on the defensive.

One of the most important disciplines in journalism is to challenge your working premises.

A common criticism of establishment journalists entails comparing them to stenographers, on the ground that most of them do little more than mindlessly write down and uncritically repeat what government officials say.

I think people should be consumers of journalism.

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.

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

If journalism is good, it is controversial, by its nature.

It is the role of good journalism to take on powerful abusers, and when powerful abusers are taken on, there's always a bad reaction. So we see that controversy, and we believe that is a good thing to engage in.

Where journalists have gotten themselves in trouble over the last few decades is that their skepticism often extends only to American officials, the U.S. military and Republican politicians.

I don't believe that there's such a thing as objectivity in much of journalism, but I think there is a serious effort to and a regard for facts and into taking that stuff seriously is very important to the public discourse and it's very important to democracy.

A journalists's job is not to be balanced. It is to be accurate.

I reject the idea that journalists are messengers of the truth. It’s arrogant. I think journalism is a search for the little relative truths that at best keep us relatively sane.

Journalists like to give themselves credit for being on the hunt for 'the truth.' But if we embrace this undoubtedly noble but somewhat haughty interpretation of a calling, we inevitably become susceptible to slam dunk answers.

Journalism is what we need to make democracy work.

The people, as much as it's fun to hate us, they need us. They need good, strong, skeptical journalists to be covering whoever it is - whether it's Barack Obama or President Donald Trump.

I know we journalists have a reputation for being cynics. We do. It's our job to question - everything.

Two opposite and instructive figures in U.S. journalism during the Trump years are Gerard Baker, editor of the Wall Street Journal, and Martin Baron, editor of the Washington Post.

Now everybody is questioning everything, so it's up to journalists who really care about the truth to fight for their corner of the truth and journalistic freedom.