Michael Arrington Quotes

Journalism, as concerns collecting information, differs little if at all from intelligence work. In my judgment, a journalist's job is very interesting.

I do get most of the harder-to-get stories.

I think that a great newspaper is one that puts a real premium on digging to get the story behind the story.

My suggestion to newspapers everywhere is to give the public a reason to read them again. So here's an idea: get on a big story with widespread public appeal, devote your best resources to it, say a quiet prayer, and swing for the fences.

I'm a reporter by nature, I want to know everything.

Great questions make great reporting.

As a print journalist, you can be frustrated by people who don't call you back, parts of the story you can't get. TV gets you access to everyone because people call you back. It also allows you to satisfy your curiosity. I am a very curious person.

Most reporters are so transactional rather than strategic.

My job is to get to the heart of a story, to find out what's really going on; to get it verified and, then, to get it out to as many people as possible as fast as.

Journalism is literature in a hurry.

I'm a journalist; I love doing interviews, and I hope that will continue.

The big moment for me was making 'All the President's Men'. It was not about Watergate or President Nixon. I wanted to focus on something I thought not many people knew about: How do journalists get the story?

In most cases, the news is not really news. But in some cases, discoveries are made and should be listened to.

Journalism is in fact history on the run.

If you're a journalist - and I think, on some level, I'm a journalist, and proud to be a journalist, or a documentarian, however you want to describe it - part of what I do has to be the pursuit of the truth.

I'm a reporter - if I don't interview someone, I don't have much to say, and I definitely can't just sit down and knock out 800 words on any subject you give me.

As a print journalist, if you hear a rumour you try to stand it up and if you can't, the story dies. With a blog you can throw the rumour out there and ask for help. You can say: 'We don't know if this is true or not.'

The meat-and-potatoes work of world journalism is performed by the wire service reporters.

At the end of the day, there is still one function of journalism that cannot be computerized, and that is reporters. You're always going to need reporters.

What I love - and I'm a journalist - and what I love is finding hidden patterns; I love being a data detective.

My best stories come from well-placed sources who point me in the right direction.

I wanted no other job than to work in newspapers. I was fascinated by the process of collecting information, talking to people and having the story appear in a paper that would be delivered in your letterbox.

Whether it's long-form journalism or investigative journalism, it's no fun to just be the guy diagnosing the problem.

I always saw the best reporters as ones you hardly ever saw other than when they were back in the newsroom, writing their stories.

It is easy to make stuff up - and easy to dig up information and repeat it or report it to others. But to find a real life story with real people in real life situations is quite difficult and time-consuming. Yet, the rewards are worth the effort.