Journalism(Related Subjects: Writing, Books)

People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news. A. J. Liebling (1904 - 1963) To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worthwhile. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter. Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947) Trying to be a first-rate reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach's 'St. Matthew's Passion' on a ukulele. Bagdikian's Observation Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock. Ben Hecht (1893 - 1964) Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be read once. Cyril Connolly (1903 - 1974), Enemies of Promise (1938) USA Today has come out with a new survey - apparently, three out of every four people make up 75% of the population. David Letterman (1947 - ) Editor: a person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed. Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915) Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read. Frank Zappa (1940 - 1993), quoted in Linda Botts, "Loose Talk" (1980) Journalism largely consists of saying 'Lord Jones is Dead' to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive. G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936) Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half. Gore Vidal (1925 - ) All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else. H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956) A newspaper consists of just the same number of words, whether there be any news in it or not. Henry Fielding (1707 - 1754) It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper. Jerry Seinfeld (1954 - ) Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers. Jimmy Breslin You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning... a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. Joseph Campbell (1904 - 1987) Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists. Norman Mailer (1923 - ), "Esquire", June 1960 But what is the difference between literature and journalism?...Journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. That is all. Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Critic as Artist, 1891 Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it. Russel Lynes Newspapermen learn to call a murderer 'an alleged murderer' and the King of England 'the alleged King of England' to avoid libel suits. Stephen Leacock (1869 - 1944) Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), Letter to Nathaniel Macon, January 12, 1819 I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it. Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826) I read no newspaper now but Ritchie's, and in that chiefly the advertisements, for they contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), Letter to Nathaniel Macon, January 12, 1819 The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)