Fourth Estate Quotes

A Fourth Estate, of Able Editors, springs up.

The best definition of journalism I have heard; to challenge authority - all authority - especially so when governments and politicians take us to war, when they have decided that they will kill and others will die.

It is the business of the journalist … to stand in permanent Opposition.

The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.

The press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. One would then like to ask: by what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible?

The press is supposed to serve as a check on government.

Burke said there were three estates in Parliament; but in the reporter's gallery yonder, there sat a fourth estate more important far than they all.

The media are the opposition party.

The press is called the Fourth Estate. It is definitely a power, but, to misuse that power is criminal.

Now everybody has to work together. They are the fourth estate. Incredibly powerful.

News is history shot on the wing. The huntsmen from the Fourth Estate seek to bag only the peacock or the eagle of the swifting day.

American media has just become talk radio, incredibly partisan name-calling and op-eds. I think the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan proved it has completely failed to act as an effective fourth estate. And young people didn't sleep through that, as is widely believed; they learned instead not to trust what they were being told.

The press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, exceeding that of the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. Yet one would like to ask: According to what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible? In the Communist East, a journalist is frankly appointed as a state official. But who has voted Western journalists into their positions of power, for how long a time, and with what prerogatives?

Journalism has a check-and-balance effect to those in power, and those in power submitted themselves to it.

The press is supposed to watch the powerful. And not throw in with them.

A key purpose of journalism is to provide an adversarial check on those who wield the greatest power by shining a light on what they do in the dark, and informing the public about those acts.

I respect very much the role of the media in our society; I think they can be very, very helpful. They serve as a very useful check, sort of a watchdog over the actions of the government, and I respect that.

The most important responsibility we have as journalists is to question those who are in power. I honestly believe that.

The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It's not our job to cozy up to power. We're supposed to be the check and balance on government.

As I occasionally survey the pack of sycophantic shih tzus in the Washington press corps, wriggling on their bellies to kiss the feet of those in power, I feel plumb discouraged about the future of journalism.

There is no weapon stronger than the press.

The job of the press is to defend their institution, hold the government accountable and freely report and gather information.

Thank God for the founding fathers, who set up three separate branches of government. And the media acting as the Fourth Estate.

The media plays an essential role in our culture. It is the Fourth Estate; it's an undeniably essential instrument in the great American experiment - in keeping our democracy functional. People have very strong opinions about what that means and how information should be disseminated to a population that requires information.

The point of journalism is to hold people in positions of power accountable.