Fiona Bruce Quotes

Healthy debate has been replaced by automatic sensors that eliminate the need for actual talking during a filibuster - a la 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.' Robust debate is necessary in a democratic society. Instead, our discourse has been relegated to media spin by expert entertainers.

I watch 'Question Time' religiously.

I'm not saying Michael Moore's smarter than Sean Hannity, but Michael Moore is better at running interviews than Hannity, even though Hannity's running the interview!

I like debating policy.

Convincing yourself doesn't win an argument.

Palin, Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and others have made an art form of convincing far too many Americans to suspend their disbelief, and they have severely damaged the ability of our country to have serious discussions about serious challenges.

Half a truth is better than no politics.

I've slipped on occasion into the realm of irresponsible invective, but I try to avoid it and generally recant when I fall short. Because name-calling does nothing to improve understanding or move the political debate forward.

I'm not an absolutist about free speech. Intellectually, I believe that most of the time it's better to let things get said, argue them, and put lies and stupidities to rest. Practically, I know that newspapers rarely issue corrections with the same prominence they give to denouncements - and Twitter, by its nature, never does.

In argument, truth always prevails finally; in politics, falsehood always.

If you stand on a soapbox and trade rhetoric with a dictator you never win.

The day-to-day making of policy is arguing all the time.

No political cliche can stand up to reality.

All politics is a combination of rhetoric and reality.

… new truths are often struck out by the collision of parties, in the eagerness of controversy, which otherwise would have lain hid, The divine disapprobation of a form of government by kings, I take to be one of this sort of truths.

Politics is an interesting and engrossing thing. It offers no immutable laws, nearly always prevaricates, but as far as blather and sharpening the mind go, it provides inexhaustible material.

For [Donald] Trump, popularity equals truth... He understands that in American public discourse, it's hard to say the people are wrong.

Canberra can be a bit of a debating society from time to time.

Politics, by its nature, emits a lot noise.

Many good journalists have attempted to confront Trump about his many lies and failures, and have failed.

I think politics is always about dialogue. I think journalism ranges from dialogue to monologue, and there are times when different poles are necessary.

I want to steer the national conversation in the right direction, from my point of view. I want to get under Robert Gibbs' skin and Rahm Emanuel's skin and Barack Obama's skin.

I do put my questions in terms of the sharpest polarities of the issue. But I don't want a preponderance of opinion over factual data.

Politicians have an arrogance that I just do not understand. I've seen more constructive debates in high school.

Politics is a literal game. Every word must represent a strict view - or be so abstract as to be meaningless.