John Chancellor Quotes

Journalism is not a precise science, it's a crude art

At CNN, our view is that good journalism equals good business.

Media is just a word that has come to mean bad journalism.

We in the media should be breaking the news and not making the news.

The function of journalism is, primarily, to uncover vital new information in the public interest and to put that information in a context so that we can use it to improve the human condition.

I believe journalism is coming to be regarded as quite a respectable occupation for gentlemen nowadays.

Journalism is an act of faith in the future.

American journalism (like the journalism of any other country) is predominantly paltry and worthless. Its pretensions are enormous, but its achievements are insignificant.

Broadsheets can be scathing. But I have respect for broadsheet journalists because they haven't succumbed to degrading themselves, to writing pidgin English with all these terrible colloquialisms, the phrasing of which is just, like, embarrassing.

Sure, some journalists use anonymous sources just because they're lazy and I think editors ought to insist on more precise identification even if they remain anonymous.

The news used to be to report facts and allow you to make the decision.

Journalism seems to have recovered its reason for being.

In essence, I see the value of journalism as resting in a twofold mission: informing the public of accurate and vital information, and its unique ability to provide a truly adversarial check on those in power.

I'm trying to correct what is wrong in journalism today: wasting users' time.

The responsibility that I feel is to do as good a job as a journalist as I can possibly do.

I knew I wanted to be a journalist ever since I was a teenager. While it is interesting and gratifying to be on the business side and to see how that all works, the main reason I kept a business role here was to protect the editorial integrity of Salon.

And I really believe good journalism is good business.

Journalism was looked upon as a more noble thing than it is now. I don't know if it carries the same cachet that it did then.

My goal, as always, is simply to inform the public about an issue that is nearly impossible for them to learn about on their own. That is my only goal as a reporter.

Some in journalism consider themselves apart from and to some extent above the people they purport to serve.

A news-writer is a man without virtue who lies at home for his own profit.

It is a newspaper's duty to print the news and raise hell.

We need ethical journalism. There is also capacity limitations in journalism.

Journalists must work to earn the trust of those they aim to serve.

It's the broadcaster's dilemma. Are we true journalists? I don't know if I am or not.