NEWS QUOTES

quotations about the news media

I am not asking for government censorship or any other kind of censorship. I am asking whether a kind of censorship already exists when the news that forty million Americans receive each night is determined by a handful of men responsible only to their corporate employers and filtered through a handful of commentators who admit to their own set of biases.

SPIRO AGNEW

speech the Midwest Republican Regional Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, November 13, 1969

Tags: Spiro Agnew


The British Press is always looking for stuff to fill the space between their cartoons.

BERNADETTE DAVLIN

attributed, The Big Book Of Business Quotations


It is seldom safe to repeat news when our enemies are auditors.

SALLUST

attributed, Day's Collacon


News is what somebody does not want you to print. All the rest is advertising.

LACUNA

The Motor, December 1937


News is often dispersed as thoughtlessly and effectively as that pollen which the bees carry off (having no idea how powdery they are) when they are buzzing in search of their particular nectar.

GEORGE ELIOT

Middlemarch

Tags: George Eliot


Journalism largely consists of saying "Lord Jones dead" to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.

G. K. CHESTERTON

The Wisdom of Father Brown

Tags: G. K. Chesterton


News is only the first rough draft of history.

ALAN BARTH

New Republic, 1943


Here comes Monsieur le Beau
With his mouth full of news,
Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed their young.
Then shall we be news-crammed.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

As You Like It

Tags: William Shakespeare


For evil news rides post, while good news baits.

JOHN MILTON

Samson Agonistes

Tags: John Milton


Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office; and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,
Remember'd tolling a departed friend.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Henry IV, Part II

Tags: William Shakespeare


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

attributed, Jewish Wit and Wisdom

Tags: Ben Hecht


Stay a little, and news will find you.

GEORGE HERBERT

Jacula Prudentum

Tags: George Herbert


News fitting to the night,
Black, fearful, comfortless and horrible.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

King John

Tags: William Shakespeare


Despite the variety and the differences, and however much we proclaim the contrary, what the media produce is neither spontaneous nor completely "free:" "news" does not just happen, pictures and ideas do not merely spring from reality into our eyes and minds, truth is not directly available, we do not have unrestrained variety at our disposal.

EDWARD SAID

Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World


Master, master! news, old news, and such news as you never heard of!

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

The Taming of the Shrew

Tags: William Shakespeare


When a dog bites a man that is not news, but when a man bites a dog that is news.

CHARLES ANDERSON DANA

The New York Sun, 1882

Tags: Charles Anderson Dana


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.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

letter to Colonel Edward Carrington, January 16, 1787

Tags: Thomas Jefferson


The medium is the message.

MARSHALL MCLUHAN

Understanding Media

Tags: Marshall McLuhan


Some day we'll call it personal broadcasting.

NOBUYUKI IDEI

Forbes, May 2000


The best way to get the news is from objective sources, and the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world.

GEORGE W. BUSH

interview, FOX News, September 23, 2003

Tags: George W. Bush