Reza Aslan Quotes

CNN will always be the channel people turn on when wars and horrible disasters happen. The 'trick' is getting people to also want to watch it when there aren't hundreds or thousands of people somewhere in the world currently in mortal peril.

The good news does not make the front pages. The bad news does make the front pages.

The Congressional leaders set the agenda for journalism; it's not the other way around.

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

I am not anti-media at all. But the media, the news anywhere in the world, is based on drama.

TV producers want ratings and are willing to do nearly anything to get them. They gin up artificial conflicts and create an urgency for even the most minor of economic data points.

The biases the media has are much bigger than conservative or liberal. They're about getting ratings, about making money, about doing stories that are easy to cover.

The one function that TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if it were.

The old newspaper adage, 'If it bleeds, it leads,' is as true today as it was a century ago.

Journalism never admits that nothing much is happening.

To a newspaperman, a human being is an item with the skin wrapped around it.

Journalism is now not only reflecting what is happening, it is affecting what is happening. Governments all over the world watch CNN.

Every time I watch CNN, it feels like you're assigning me homework. Is Trump a Russian spy? I don't know. You tell me - I'm watching the news. It feels like I'm watching CNN watch the news. Just take an hour, figure out what you want to say, then go on the air.

The media is always looking for a story of one kind or another.

Surely, AP or the coaches are all aware everybody has agendas. Anybody who's on TV has one. You know, that's viewership and ratings and those kinds of things.

Among journalists, there is a saying: 'If it bleeds, it leads.' This can result in some serious hustling - and some serious sloppiness - whenever a crime occurs. The public's longing to see and hear salacious details is, basically, endless.

Media organizations are frequently criticized for a heartless approach to the news. Stories that are damaging to a person's reputation make the front page just as quickly - and many would say even more quickly - as stories that enhance it.

The media is done, they don't do journalism anymore, it's activism, nothing more, right?

I've been a news junkie as long as I can remember - and once you've covered a presidential campaign, it's nearly impossible to tear yourself away. There's so much at stake.

We don't sit down and look at the news pages and think, 'How could we do an episode about that?'

Our job is to tell the world about Russia and to report world news from a Russian viewpoint.

The media do strange things.

Now, you watch cable news, and you know what everybody's going to say before they open their mouth.

Going from local news to a network operation is learning a whole new ballgame. The way you go about it and the stories you cover are so different. I feel at Fox I have a lot more autonomy about doing my work.

When you are a journalist and there is a big story like Dominic Cummings, it's great to be at the heart of it. What I love, and it sounds a bit cheesy, is you feel connected to other people.