Samuel Butler Quotes

The Iraq war fueled distrust of the press from both sides.

I think there are a lot of reasons to be critical of the media in America.

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

I like BuzzFeed, and I understand the pressure that online reporters are under. But I think everyone agrees that, despite all the awesome kitten gifs, they're still obligated to be skeptical of government officials and ask the right questions.

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

When the crisis at the core of our nation’s political decline is a direct attack on the truth, the institution that should take the lead in confronting and correcting that danger is the press.

The press ... is but the servant of human intellect and its ministry is for good or evil, according to the character of those who direct it. The press is a mill that grinds all that is put into its hopper. Fill the hopper with poisoned grain and it will grind it to meal, but there is death in the bread.

There are those who blame the Press, but in this I think they are mistaken. The Press is such as the public demands, and the public demands bad newspapers because it has been badly educated.

I was increasingly disappointed how people in the media do their job or, rather, don't do their job. They are not there for the facts or pursuit of the truth; they are there to see, 'How do I get on TV or become a YouTube star.'

People stop believing what the media tells them when they see media superstars say things like, 'Let the economy fail.'

Understanding how the media actually works is critical. Because editors depend on ignorance and media illiteracy to ply their trade. The fact that many readers expect fact checking, editorial oversight, and ethics actually makes it easier for the media to be lazy.

The job of the press is to encourage debate, not to supply the public with information.

American media has just become talk radio, incredibly partisan name-calling and op-eds. I think the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan proved it has completely failed to act as an effective fourth estate. And young people didn't sleep through that, as is widely believed; they learned instead not to trust what they were being told.

Its attitude, which it has preached and practiced, is skepticism. Now, it finds, the public is applying that skepticism to the press.

Given what the media have put the country through this past decade, it must come as a surprise to most Americans that the press has a code of ethics.

I think the media needs a little criticizing now, as it did in the '80s, don't you?

There is a long-standing tradition in the mainstream press of middle-of-the-road journalism that is objective and fair. I would hate to see that fall victim to a panic about the Fox effect.

One of the most important disciplines in journalism is to challenge your working premises.

So no one should rely on television either for their knowledge of music or for news. There's just more going on. It's an adjunct to the written word, which I think is still the most important thing.

The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves - and the better the teacher, the better the student body.

I think people should be consumers of journalism.

It’s always a danger when an institution like the press becomes disconnected from the people.

One of the first things we should teach every student is not to believe everything they read and hear.

The journalistic traits that are valued on TV and radio talk shows are destructive to democracy.

If this newspaper pestilence shall continue for fifty years more, the intelligence of our people will be destroyed.... Hold fast and zealously, therefore, to the slogan I now ask you to make your own: hatred and contempt, death and destruction, of the press of today.