Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
A newspaper has three things to do. One is to amuse, another is to entertain and the rest is to mislead.
The truth is that the newspaper is not a place for information to be given, rather it is just hollow content, or more than that, a provoker of content. If it prints lies about atrocities, real atrocities are the result.
No one needs to tell me about the importance of the free press in a democratic society or about the essential role a newspaper can play in its community.
I think a newspaper should be provocative, stir 'em up, but you can't do that on television. It's just not on.
The last thing we want is politicians running newspapers, but so too we don't want newspapers running the government.
I was taught that newspapers were supposed to find out if rumors were true, and if not, not print them.
Newspapers have become more important to the average man than the scriptures.
The newspaper offers something very different from Google's aggregators. It offers a value system, an idea of what matters in the world. Newspapers need to start articulating that value.
I don't believe newspaper reporters can substitute for a district attorney, but a newspaper has a very valid investigative role. Newspaper reports on corruption in government, racketeering and organized crime conditions can be very helpful to your communities and the whole country.
