Bob Woodward Quotes

A journalist enjoys a privileged position. In exchange for not being able to participate in the rough-and-tumble issues of a community, we are given license to observe it all, based on the understanding that we'll tell everyone what happens fairly and squarely. That's harder than it sounds.

We don't go into journalism to be popular. It is our job to seek the truth and put constant pressure on our leaders until we get answers.

An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery.

I think that the press has a duty and an obligation to report on local government, state government, federal government - to be aggressive, to do its job. And its job is to report on whatever it's covering.

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

With the press there is no 'off the record.'

Journalists should denounce government by public opinion polls.

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.

You hope the American people are fair. We recognize journalists have to kill somebody each week.

The job of media is the accountability of government.

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

I think it's a lack of journalistic integrity to print things with anonymous sources.

If a journalist comes to you with a great story, one of the first questions you ask is how did you get it. How you got it is relevant to judging its accuracy and preparing yourself for any legal challenge.

The ability of the press to print their stories without the government trying to get them to betray their sources is as essential to a free press as the ink it is printed with. Otherwise, who will hold accountable those who hold power over us?

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

Journalism is the protection between people and any sort of totalitarian rule. That's why my hero, admittedly a flawed one, is a journalist.

Some of the best stories that I've gotten, that others have written about this administration, about the previous administration, you have to rely on anonymous sources.

The media's gotten lazy. They don't check anything out. You report what he reports.

Journalism: A profession whose business is to explain to others what it personally does not understand.

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.

WikiLeaks, for me, has not only that element in it of journalism publishing, but also the way in which it does it, with its - the concept we have of scientific journalism, I find very important and really appeals to me, that all of the source documents should be there.

Holding our own government to account for the use of its power is, in my view, the highest mission of a U.S. news organization.

Murrow covered something because it needed coverage. He wasn't trying to get an audience just for the sake of it.

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.

In revealing the workings of government that led to the Vietnam War, the newspapers nobly did precisely that which the Founders hoped and trusted they would do.