Fact-Based Journalism Quotes

I don't know of anybody's political bias at CBS News. We try very hard to get any opinion that we have out of our stories, and most of our stories are balanced.

Readers appreciate the truth. Why say, 'Some think a situation is a mess?' Based on my reporting, if a situation is a mess, then I say that. The truth is always what reporters tell each other when they get back to the newsroom.

A journalists's job is not to be balanced. It is to be accurate.

I don't want to just traffic in sensationalism or in mere blood.

"The [London] Times" has published no rumours; it's only reported facts, namely that other, less responsible papers are publishing certain rumours.

I view Al Jazeera as a very serious journalistic outfit. They have proven to observers around the world that they are serious and objective. They will have to, at a P.R. level, prove to the American public that that is the case. And I think that over time they will succeed at doing that.

Facing fewer subscriptions, ratings drops, et al., media is catching on: people don't want endless editorializing. They want the facts, Jack. If you're going to be op/ed, at least be up front about it.

Longer distances yield local media coverage that tends to be more one-dimensional and absolute, less nuanced, and more sporadic.

When I hear people say that Fox News is right wing, I know that's not true, because I'm the one doing the news. It's my show, and there's no place for opinion on my show. It's uninteresting to me.

The newspaper is of necessity something of a monopoly, and its first duty is to shun the temptations of monopoly. Its primary office is the gathering of news. At the peril of its soul it must see that the supply is not tainted. Neither in what it gives, nor in what it does not give, nor in the mode of presentation, must the unclouded face of truth suffer wrong. Comment is free but facts are sacred.

I tell my students, even if you are an opinion journalist, your opinion should be based on facts.

I think I'm careful. My goal is to try to stay away as much from opinion journalism as possible.

Omidyar Network first supported Africa Check in 2014 when they were a team of just three dedicated people intent on building a more fact-based environment for public debate in South Africa.

One of the problems I have always discussed is the refusal to distinguish between comment and fact. The newspaper wraps every fact into a comment. It is impossible to give mere fact without establishing point of view.

It might be well if we could start a slogan "Improve your community by knowing real facts about it" and for the newspapers and magazines particularly I wish we could have a slogan "Do not write good stories based on imagination, write good stories based on facts

Show me a contented newspaper editor and I will show you a bad newspaper.