Robert Scheer Quotes

I'm a big fan of British journalists like 'The Independent's Robert Fisk, but it's hard to find voices like his in the U.S.

I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter. Now I wake up and ask myself, 'Who do I hate today?'

I think Michael Moore is loathsome, though, not because he dislikes Bush, but because he seems to dislike America.

In any event, the proper question isn't what a journalist thinks is relevant but what his or her audience thinks is relevant. Denying people information they would find useful because you think they shouldn't find it useful is censorship, not journalism.

I have never really liked Lowell Weiker personally, but I think that those of us who are conservative have wasted entirely too much effort fighting him over the years.

If we shake the pillar of a free and objective press, we're harming our American national interests.

The newspapers! Sir, they are the most villainous — licentious — abominable — infernal — Not that I ever read them — no — I make it a rule never to look into a newspaper.

...the liberty of the Press is called the Palladium of Freedom, which means, in these days, the liberty of being deceived, swindled, and humbugged by the Press and paying hugely for the deception.

For my part though silent I have at times felt that I would prefer to be governed by Davis, Beauregard & Bragg, [than] to be thus abused by a set of dirty newspaper scribblers who have the impudence of Satan. They come into camp, poke around among the lazy shirks & pick up their camp Rumors & publish them as facts.... They are a pest and Shall not approach me, and I will treat them as spies, which in truth they are.

Is journalism a profession that serves the public by maintaining high standards, or is it a social construct that should be redesigned to directly serve certain social goods? Some argue that all journalism involves bias, either hidden or revealed. But it is one thing to say that objectivity and fairness are ultimately unreachable. It is another to cease grasping for them. That would be a world of purely private truths, in which the boldest liars and demagogues would thrive.

No one needs to tell me about the importance of the free press in a democratic society or about the essential role a newspaper can play in its community.

I've been in journalism my entire adult life and have often defended it against fellow conservatives who claim the news business is fundamentally corrupt.

I myself have felt the wrath of the media, but that's part of what a good democracy is.

I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report.

Everyone is free to express their opinions, but I think that journalists should do it with more responsibility. They lack accuracy.

Let's be clear: there was no golden age of journalism. The media has always been bad. And instead of improving, it spent a lot of time and energy making up its own myth.

Sean Hannity is a hypocrite!He's blasting anonymous sources and saying journalism is dead when he uses an anonymous source in the form of President Trump.

I don't know if I ever believed in the infallibility of a journalist's objectivity, but I definitely stopped flirting with the notion as a young adult.

I think media has lost its way. We must recognize that the proprietors of these organizations have put on a form of censorship. Basically, they're more interested in celebrity, narcissism, rich people, good-looking people, and successful sportsmen.

I criticize the media for inventing stories.

I think politics is always about dialogue. I think journalism ranges from dialogue to monologue, and there are times when different poles are necessary.

I feel like the Left wants to destroy Fox News.

The most important newspapers in this country need to exist. Our democracy needs them. Life as we know it would be unthinkable without them.

We need journalists to be fearless and hold power to account.

When Senator Cruz, with all due respect, tries to throw my network and CNN under the bus, let me stand up for my colleagues and journalists here.