David Halberstam Quotes

During the early months of the war in 1914 there was a conflict of opinion between the War Office and the Foreign Office regarding news from the Front.

War is big and there are only so many reporters and only so many places for their words and images to appear. Choices are made constantly.

There has been a reflex throughout the history of modern news: When the country goes to war, so do the major news organizations. They consider it ‘patriotic.’ But it is dubious patriotism that abandons citizens in unnecessary ignorance of critical information…The before-and-after picture of U.S. officialdom presents a stark lesson of the tragedies of war and propaganda repeated in the major media.

War coverage should be more than a parade of retired generals and retired government flacks posing as reporters.

Vietnam is often called our only uncensored war, but that only means that the government wasn't vetting the pictures and words.

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.

One of the lessons learned during the Vietnam War was that the depiction of wounded soldiers, of coffins stacked higher than their living guards, had a negative effect on the viewing public. The military in Iraq specifically banned the photographing of wounded soldiers and coffins, thus sanitizing this terrible and bloody conflict.

One big, glaring difference I can think of between Iraq and Vietnam is the news coverage. During the Vietnam War era, you had TV coverage of the war saturating the airwaves every night, and that coverage wasn't put through a military filter at all.

Wars tend to be very public things, they are visible. There are correspondents traveling with the troops and you get daily dispatches.

The US military still blames the media for stories and images that turned the American public against the war in Vietnam.

When a nation is at war many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its efforts that their utterance will not be endured.

The next time you or one of your fellows plans to mention civilian casualties in North Vietnam, I want you both to come down and have a drink with me before you go to testify on The Hill.

Reporters were all part of the war effort. They went along with it, and not only that, they abetted it.…It is in the things not mentioned that the untruth lies.…They wrote only a part of the war

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.

I think the commentarian has taken over, so now what you get is a lot less reporting and more opinion.

There is always sleaze in the news. And you know what? The news is always a combination of things that are interesting and things that are important.

I know better than to ever attempt to get a reporter removed from covering any topic. That would never be an option.

When it comes to the news, the corporate view is 'objective,' all else is propaganda.

To go from politics to news, at least the subject matter is the same, even if the view is different.

For governments at war, the media is an instrument of war or an element in war that is to be controlled.

We wanted to see this country win the war just as much as those advisors did. We felt we would help to do that by reporting the truth. And so there was the moral outrage over this general and the ambassador in Saigon who kept denying the truth we would see.

I am not anti-media at all. But the media, the news anywhere in the world, is based on drama.

I don't want the news to be patriotic. I don't want to see flags on the lapels of the anchors. I don't want any of that.

It's all storytelling, you know. That's what journalism is all about.

I never, ever have seen media this way. It's almost indescribable. Making up stories, refusing to run real stories. It's making themselves look like utter fools. There's no journalism, there is no media. There's pure, full-fledged advocacy here.