Carl Hiaasen Quotes

I realized I couldn't be a journalist because I like to take a side, to have an opinion and a point a view; I liked to step across the imaginary boundary of the objective view that the journalist is supposed to have and be involved.

You can't always see both sides of the story. Eventually, you have to pick a side and stick with it. No more equivocating. You have to commit.

The best way to get thrown out of the columnists' club is to be uncertain about anything whatsoever on this earth.

Who ever has no fixed opinions has no constant feelings.

We must take positions. Our weakness in the West is born of the fact of so-called 'objectivity.' Objectivity does not exist - it cannot exist!... The word is a hypocrisy which is sustained by the lie that the truth stays in the middle. No, sir: Sometimes truth stays on one side only.

Journalists aren't supposed to be cheerleaders.

I was trained as journalist never to use the word 'I,' never to put my own opinion there. In fact, if you had a dollar or a euro for every time I use the word 'I,' you would be a poor person. But this is not true in general. I like the idea of being able to stand away and make a judgement.

I'm not in the judgment part of journalism.

A lot of journalism wants to have what they call objectivity without them having a commitment to pursuing the truth, but that doesn't work. Objectivity requires belief in and a commitment toward pursuing the truth - having an object outside of our personal point of view.

We journalists make it a point to know very little about an extremely wide variety of topics; this is how we stay objective.

There's a longstanding tradition that journalists don't cheer in the press box. They have opinions, like anyone else, but they are expected to keep those opinions out of their work.

If you really think you're right, you should tell it.

I don't know if there's such a thing as objectivity.

We're journalists, and so it's our job to be impartial and provide a fair and thorough assessment of what's happening on the ground from the perspective of what we're able to see.

In this day and age, much of journalism is about right or left, conservative or liberal, and 'The Observer' is just that: an observer. It is about truth.

Have a definite opinion.

I want the news delivered unbiased. I thought that was the whole point with journalism.

Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine.

Journalists hold themselves apart, and above, the common person. They have rules designed to ensure their objectivity and impartiality.

Always have an answer - even if you change your mind five minutes later.

I do not subscribe to the advocacy journalism school. It's not who I am and not who CNN wants me to be.

I have yet to see a piece of writing, political or non-political, that doesn't have a slant. All writing slants the way a writer leans, and no man is born perpendicular, although many men are born upright.

In the end, we journalists try - or should try - to be the first impartial witnesses of history. If we have any reason for our existence, the least must be our ability to report history as it happens so that no one can say: 'we didn't know - no one told us.'

The good journalist is never objective. He is always neutral.

You could say that any book that takes a position is not fair, unless you keep saying, 'On the one hand, on the other...' and take a great deal of trouble to present both sides. That kind of journalism tends not to be very interesting.