Michael Hastings Quotes

Without television, Richard Nixon would not have a chance. He would not have a prayer of being elected because the press would not let him get through to the people.

…Democrats are complaining that they can’t get their message out … because Donald Trump has blotted out the media sun. … The eclipse won’t end. The media has turned the Trump presidency into a phenomenon of constant self-absorption—their self-absorption in this one person. Donald Trump has become the biggest balloon in a political Macy’s parade of modern media’s own creation. They could let go of the ropes. But they won’t.

Trump has taken it to a new level. He is now viewing the media as the 'opposition party,' in his own words. Consequently, media coverage of Trump has become that much more significant.

I don't get bothered by the media. There is nothing in the media that makes me lose any sleep at night.

I don't subscribe to the argument that TV networks gave Trump too much attention and that's the main reason why he's president, nor do I subscribe to the argument that reporters ignored Trump's America.

It's the media who love statistics.

I think politicians who suggest they are uninterested in the support of newspapers are not being straight with people.

President Obama is not polarizing, but the media sure is.

Which suggests something about media and war: it's not just that events happen and the media documents and presents them. There is a third element: what the public is ready to accept, what the public wants to know.

The media was completely influential in the rise and fall of Bonnie and Clyde.

I truly have a love-hate thing with the press.

Nixon, who spent much of his career attacking the press and saying he was a victim of the press, was in fact created by the press, in this case the L.A. Times.

It’s always difficult for a President to explain his policies through the filter of the media and the crises of the day.

I apologize for what the media has done.

The news media more and more considered the politicians to be props in their entertainment shows.

The media can make or break an administration.

What matters to the press matters perforce to politicians.

Heavy media attention legitimates anything …

Journalism is now not only reflecting what is happening, it is affecting what is happening. Governments all over the world watch CNN.

How can you govern if you always have to feed the news cycle?

Politics is television and whoever masters it is likely to win.

We suffer quite as much from exaggerated, hysterical, and untruthful statements in the press as from any wrongdoing by businessmen or politicians.

It's hard not to look at the road of the media and how the media is a big part of painting a picture for public opinion.

I don't pay attention to the media. You guys can say whatever you want. At the end of the day, at the end of the season, if we're doing well, you guys are going to be there.

One thing that is fairly undeniable about Trump - love him or loathe him - is his understanding of how to manipulate the media and to perpetuate a symbiotic relationship with the press.