Robert Scheer Quotes

We've been dealing with censorship around multimedia, about multinational companies and the content they create, for a very long time.

And if there was something, suppose I wanted to write something really damning or embarrassing about one of the owners, that would really be a problem on the NFL's site.

What comes with a job as a staff member of the BBC is a certain self-censoring that you get utterly used to. You don't say everything you think. You hold back on some things.

I think good companies can navigate being public and doing the right things for their customers.

More than once at TechCrunch, we made AOL extremely uncomfortable with things that we wrote. But they never ordered us to write or not write about something because they understood that not only would we not comply, we'd write a post about the whole thing.

Media corporations have a civic responsibility not only to prevent fraud and financial abuse, but also to not corrupt or degrade our culture.

[Describing glasnost:] A media management policy.

… most censorship took place in the heads of writers, and what the writers failed to cut usually got filtered out by editors in publishing houses.

I believe a board in a small startup company should never vote on anything.

If we start attacking advertisers because of what somebody said - it's the wrong thing to do.

If the media is a farce, why should you be the only one stuck with rules and restrictions?

As editor, I think we need to act more decisively on what kind of material appears on the 'Guardian'. Those who argue that this is an affront to freedom of speech miss the point. That freedom counts for little if it is used to silence others.

We exercise great caution in airing an audio- or videotape released by a terrorist organization holding a hostage. These are decisions made by CNN's editorial staff and not by any third party.

Although I may find the type of programming seen during the 2004 Super Bowl and the 2003 Golden Globe Awards disgusting and disturbing, we must always work hard to defend the cherished freedoms so clearly outlined in our Constitution, including a healthy and free press.

Shareholder meetings are not usually the occasion for utter candor - or for that matter, arch sarcasm - by chief executives.

It is always important that we have transparency, that we have shareholder protection. Then again, I think it is important that there are not so many regulations that management can't make a decision without asking a lawyer whether he can do it.

If it were up to the executives, they probably wouldn't have directors at all.

You have more independent eyes scrutinizing the decision-making and financial statements of companies.

The only place we were really told to tone it down - where other people would use the word censorship, but I wouldn't - was when we did MTV right after the Beavis and Butt-head thing.

If I was president, of course I'd want an amendment banning boy bands, but it just wouldn't be right, and I wouldn't do it. Then again... I don't want to paint myself into a corner on this one. Let me think about it.

We have got to make sure there is proper independent scrutiny and accountability for people in the press, just as there should be in any other industry where things go wrong. But let's not try and think it is for politicians or governments to tell people what they stick in newspapers. That is deeply illiberal.

I was for many years myself a journalist and it is not appropriate to say a programme should not be broadcast.

I'd like to think that, in the United States, you can criticize a company that makes hamburgers without having to worry about what might happen to you.

I really believe that all CEO pay should be voted on by shareholders ahead of time. Mine was.

I don't think anybody has indicated that I did anything but do my job at Fannie Mae.