Richard Dreyfuss Quotes

I have never quite grasped the worry about the power of the press. After all, it speaks with a thousand voices, in constant dissonance.

Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.

I respect very much the role of the media in our society; I think they can be very, very helpful. They serve as a very useful check, sort of a watchdog over the actions of the government, and I respect that.

The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It's not our job to cozy up to power. We're supposed to be the check and balance on government.

It is stupid on my part to think of banning the media.

I respect the press. The press and the media are a very useful watchdog to check the power of the government.

The concept that the press is an organ of government policy dies hard.

We do not need a censorship of the press. We have a censorship by the press.

The fourth estate which if not well looked to, will turn us all out of doors.

In order to enjoy the inestimable benefits that the liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils it creates

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

The media has become more forceful, has begun to recognize its traditional historic role and act on it, and truth is infectious.

Let me make the newspapers, and I care not what is preached in the pulpit or what is enacted in Congress.

As far as the media is concerned, I wouldn't shoot anything down.

The media does play a vital role in our democracy, and if we cannot depend on journalistic ethics, the nation's in trouble.

Our founding fathers could not have foreseen that freedom of the press might eventually be threatened just as much by media consolidation as by government.

I take a grave view of the press. It is the weak slat under the bed of democracy.

A free press can of course be good or bad, but most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad.

The press, like fire, is an excellent servant, but a terrible master.

If you don't think a television news show represents the truth, you can turn off your TV. If you don't think a magazine represents the truth, you can cancel your subscription. You have the right to expose yourself to whatever information you want. But to have the government prescribing what the truth is or limiting the information available for the citizen is contrary to the 1st Amendment.

The chief danger which threatens the influence and honor of the press is the tendency of its liberty to degenerate into license.

The media is like the terrain and weather. It is a fact; it's nothing you can change. You have to learn to deal with it. And it isn't bad or good, it's just there. I don't think we should put limits on the press, unless it's for security reasons or for reasons of risk in the case of an operation. We value freedom of the press. It's something we are fighting for. It's part of the constitutional rights that we swear our allegiance to. We just have to accept it and learn to deal with it in a right way, and give and take.

To-day a democrat of the old school would demand, not freedom for the press, but freedom from the press

There is a power in our land, irresponsible, corrupt and malicious—‘the press,’ which has created the intense feelings of hostility that has arrayed the two parts of the country against each other, which must be curbed and brought within the just limits of reason and law, before we can have peace in America. We can deal with armies who have a visible and tangible existence, but it will require tact and skill and courage to clip the wings of this public enemy.

I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. That we need an independent media to hold people like me to account. […] power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.