Media Constraints Quotes

We have to deal in 30 second sound bites. It's not your fault. It's not our fault.

We were badly held back not just by the technology, but by the culture of journalism.

When I go on 'The View,' or any of those talk shows, you really don't get to say what you want to say.

Journalists in newspapers and in many magazines are not permitted to be subjective and tell their readers what they think. Journalists have got to follow a very strict formulaic line, and here we come, these non-fiction writers, these former journalists who are using all the techniques that journalists are pretty much not allowed to use.

I think the radio is kind of cool, because you're really free to do whatever you want, because you can go into another world. Whereas in TV, you have to make that world.

People who don't accept that doctrinal system, they may try to survive in the media, but they are unlikely to.

In TV and movies, you get known for a certain thing, and that's what's expected. Onstage, people are more open to whatever character you create from one play to the next.

The whole problem with news on television comes down to this: all the words uttered in an hour of news coverage could be printed on a page of a newspaper. And the world cannot be understood in one page.

24 hour broadcasts have to stretch limited material to fit 24 hours worth of space.

If there's one thing that television doesn't really do, and has never really done, is to tell a surreal story.

Magazines at some point become hostage to their own success.

Television is much more difficult because at every moment the network can force you to change things based on their belief about what would make it popular. You're in a constant debate with a gun at your head, and the gun is cancellation. So it's hard to win the arguments.

I sure can't do television. The screen is only 24 inches. How are they ever gonna get someone like me in that little box?

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.

On TV you can't show landscapes. You just can't. Even a postcard is better.

TV feels quite constipated, and the thing I find particularly difficult is the branding of the channels where it's not 'Is it a good script?' but 'Is it a BBC2 script?'

Anybody who wants to make television has a tremendous problem because it's a financially restrictive media in this day and age.

Radio is so heavily programmed; you have to fit into a certain box. So it's harder for anything different to get through.

I didn't want to be a 'Fortune' writer who was constrained in any way.

It is extremely difficult to do anything constructive, let alone deep, on daily commercial television, especially on a talk show.

You have to keep people engaged until you get them through the next commercial. I'm not complaining about working in TV, at all, but just as an artistic reaction, I find myself being so drawn to moments of silence where things are allowed to breathe.

The problem with my peers is they don't understand television. You have to work within the confines of what executives will allow you to put on TV. Otherwise, we've not done anything, we've not really struggled to change the culture at all.

War is big and there are only so many reporters and only so many places for their words and images to appear. Choices are made constantly.

There are potentially many offences that journalists could commit in the course of their business. It would be very unhealthy if you had a situation where a journalist felt that they needed to go to their lawyer before they pursued any lead or asked any question.

There are things that I won't do on the radio. I mean, the next logical question is, what won't you do. I say, well, you know, you've got to find out when you're on the air.