Howard K. Smith Quotes

What's now shocking is I can't say anything publicly without it having a life. Not because I have extraordinary views but because people are keen on conflict, so they'll make that the story.

I think people are frightened of saying what they think, and I think that's a bad thing for society.

We do have freedom of speech, but if you say the wrong word, it looks like it makes headlines. So everybody has to be very careful.

If you write something the White House doesn't like, they take you in and say, 'If you ever write something like you did today, nobody from the White House will ever talk to you again,'

Some of the press who speak loudly about the freedom of the press are themselves the enemies of freedom. Countless people dare not say a thing because they know it will be picked up and made a song of by the press. That limits freedom.

I don't think any media has to feel obliged to show the cover of 'Charlie Hebdo.'

I think the enemy is self-censorship. In a free society the biggest danger is that you're afraid to the point where you censor yourself.

In America you can say anything you want - as long as it doesn't have any effect.

I have heard Obama officials say more than once, 'You will have blood on your hands if you publish this story.'

What is often said in private may not be said in public.

We cannot allow political pressure from critics of unpopular ideas to inhibit the free exchange of ideas.

The right to insult members of the government is inviolable.

Once you “volunteer” and engage in self-censorship something happens to your conscience.

The American public is capable of doing its own censoring… If you curtail what the other fellow says and does, you curtail what you yourself may say and do.

Everyone champions freedom of expression in the abstract but few can resist calling for censorship when they do not like what is being expressed.

Self-censorship as a result of intimidation or social pressures, sometimes referred to as “political correctness”, constitutes a serious obstacle to the proper functioning of democracy. It is important to hear the views of all persons including the “silent majority”, and to give heed to the weaker voices.

Get up in one of our industrial centers today and say that two and two make four, and if there is any financial interest concerned in maintaining that two and two make five, the police will bash your head in.

I think all of society should be a think-tank where you throw ideas about. I had hoped the Internet would help. Actually, what it has done is make everybody go schtum. They're attacked for saying anything. So they say nothing.

I think there are ways in which we censor ourselves; that's the most dangerous kind of censorship - that's how hegemony works.

Think about it: If you were publicly branded a racist on an issue of public debate, might you not next time hesitate to speak out, write your elected representatives or go to a meeting? That's a chilling effect - and undermines the First Amendment.

We don't want people to be afraid of saying something interesting on the off chance it's taken the wrong way.

Public discourse degenerated. There's no longer a place for intelligent debate at universities, where people just work for degrees and careers. My own experience was how my trade union's lively branch debates dwindled to a few people round cups of coffee. There's a climate of people frightened to say what they think for fear of offending someone.

Being in the public eye makes you frightened to talk openly about things - which is precisely why you should. You can really make a difference and open up subjects that are taboo.

There are some things I feel the need to pussyfoot around that I would like to... give vent to. But I realise the press isn't the place to do that.

They want me to stop making my opinions and not saying a word; I know the Left wants that.