Journalism Critique Quotes

The definition of political cinema is one I don't agree with, because every film, every show, is typically political in nature. Political cinema is simply the brainchild of bad journalists.

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

I am not anti-media at all. But the media, the news anywhere in the world, is based on drama.

I became a journalist because I didn't want to have to rely on the press for information... I only read it to make sure of whatever everyone else thinks is going on, because it's useful to know what people think is the news.

A historian is not always a prophet facing backwards, but a journalist is always someone who afterwards knew everything beforehand.

During a recent panel on the numerous failures of American journalism, I proposed that almost all stories about government should begin: “Look out! They're about to smack you around again!

Journalists cover words and delude themselves into thinking they have committed journalism.

Basically, financial reporting is this sinking hole at the centre of journalism. You start by swimming around it until finally, reluctantly, you can't fight the pull anymore and you get sucked down the drain into the biz pages.

Journalism never admits that nothing much is happening.

Some taxpayers may object to a print journalism bailout on the grounds that it mostly benefits the liberal elite. And we can't blame taxpayers for being reluctant to subsidize the reportorial careers of J-school twerps who should have joined the Peace Corps and gone to Africa to 'speak truth to power' to Robert Mugabe.

Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another.

Notwithstanding the likes of 'All the President's Men' in the 1970s or HBO's recent 'The Newsroom,' film and TV have always loved to hate the press.

What passes for sports coverage is terribly sycophantic.

One thing that happens on the 'Newsroom' is that every time a real story does get incorporated into the show, there's always an angle that's provided that hasn't really been dealt with yet.

What I am is something unbearable for the world of journalism and the world of cliches. I'm a realist.

I get most of my news from the Jon Stewart Daily Show. It's the most level commentary you can find. You have to laugh, because it's all so true. It's the closest thing to a counterculture.

Of course [the White House press corps] are a factor, and the reason is they're not media. They happen to pretend or portray people running around finding out things nobody else knows and telling everybody, but that's not what they do.

I do not mean to be the slightest bit critical of TV newspeople, who do a superb job, considering that they operate under severe time constraints and have the intellectual depth of hamsters. But TV news can only present the "bare bones" of a story; it takes a newspaper, with its capability to present vast amounts of information, to render the story truly boring.

It became very clear to me that Yooralla was not as interested in media coverage that explored issues faced by people with disability as it was in giving a pat on the back to journalists who maintained the status quo by giving readers the warm and fuzzies over their morning paper.

For many years I have devoted articles and essays to newspapers, from the inside. So criticism of the newspapers was a topic that I practiced for a long time.

Australia is a huge rest home, where no unwelcome news is ever wafted on to the pages of the worst newspapers in the world.

We have a product for sale called news, and I'm a salesman.