Paul Theroux Quotes

What you don't get in the mainstream media is so much of the background material.

Print reporters have the opportunity to go so much more in depth in certain stories than television reporters do because they're working on stories for months at a time.

I tried to steer the student newspaper toward more pertinent information instead of the usual gossip and bull.

Murrow covered something because it needed coverage. He wasn't trying to get an audience just for the sake of it.

Journalists follow authority as sharks follow a liner, dining on the scraps that are thrown overboard.

Investigative journalism is never mass-based; it's very focused, and you want people who are passionate about it to take it.

There are many great outlets that we love and respect, but 'The North Star' really is going to be a hard news outlet with reporters and journalists, White House correspondents. I think we'll be hard news with some cultural commentary.

The fact is, the media never gets off the interstate unless there's a major explosion.

One of the things I regret is that magazines now are so lifestyle-orientated that the opportunity to do bigger projects is gone. This is a serious misjudgment on the part of magazine editors.

The network and local TV angle of broadcast television has received a black eye for not properly debating within the news issues that should be debated, instead of shuffling them of to television advertising.

Forty years ago, we were on the tail of the Front Page era. There was a different point of view. Reporters and editors were more forgiving of public people. They didn't think they had to stick someone in jail to make a career.

Don't count out other amazing programming like Frontline. You will still find more hours of in-depth news programming, investigative journalism and analysis on PBS than on any other outlet.

People shouldn't expect the mass media to do investigative stories. That job belongs to the 'fringe' media.

CNN is getting smarter, and you can feel it in the stories, you can feel it in the depth with which they're covered, the kinds of people in terms of guests who are brought on air, the way in which issues are discussed.

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 want to be the greatest investigative reporter of my generation.

Right-wing media and politicians are looking for any opportunity to be critical of the reporters who are here. Some reporters make judgments, but that is not my style. I present both sides and report what I see with my own eyes.

There is a real hunger for information about Obama and a sense that information is not being covered or, in some cases, even being withheld. There is a sense that there are elements of the media that are protective of Obama, that they would rather block a story that is embarassing about Obama than let the American public decide.

I'm not an investigative journalist; I don't track crime or police blotters.

Serious journalism need not be solemn.

I tend to gravitate toward reporters who cover all aspects of the story: from personal aspects to the big picture that answer the 'so what' of a story.

I've learned in my years as a journalist that when a politician says 'That's ridiculous' you're probably on the right track.

There have been as many investigative reporters on this newspaper working on Clinton's many problems as I can remember there were working on Watergate.

The New York Times Bestseller 'The Amateur,' written by Ed Klein, former editor of the 'New York Times Magazine,' is one of the best books I've read.

America is a country of inventors, and the greatest of inventors are the newspaper men.