Media Commentary Quotes

Television is a device that permits people who haven't anything to do to watch people who can't do anything.

Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert. Those are the guys I look at who are telling me pretty much the truth. And they throw humor into it which makes it much more interesting to listen to.

I usually stalk fans because I think they're really funny on Twitter. They don't know it, but I'll just go through their timelines, and if something is happening in the media, I always read fan accounts instead of the news because they have all the info and make the funniest jokes about it, so that's how I get my gossip - by stalking fans.

I'm a huge fan of 'The Watch,' and I've also been on a few times. It's Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan's show on The Ringer. It's just a great podcast about television.

My readers know my views on politics and politicians because I make no secret of them in my comments for 'The New Yorker' and elsewhere.

It takes great self-confidence to write a newspaper column. Some might say it takes arrogance. Be that as it may, my willingness to pronounce on a great many matters of which I have little or no knowledge is one of my prime qualifications for this trade.

I don't usually comment on columnists' ideas of what I'm thinking. That's a dangerous game to get into.

Pundits always have something to write about; the novelist just has a blank screen.

It's actually harder than it looks to be a good pundit on the air. You've got to have stuff to say.

On television, journalists now routinely appear on talk-shows-with-an-attitude where they are encouraged to say what they think about something they may not have finished thinking about.

I really enjoy working as a pundit.

I'm sick of pundits. Don't get me wrong. I love the guests I have on every day. I love their energy and smarts and sass. But I'm sick of pundits because they don't always have their ears to the ground.

If you're the play-by-play announcer, I think it's your job to be better than just saying what's on people's TV screen.

For 18 years I have resisted talking about current events. I am not going to start now.

I was hired by the 'Tom Joyner Morning Show' to do commentary that makes people think. I want my audience to feel like they are learning and not being pandered to.

Yeah, I think of what I do as a work of journalism. It's more like the op-ed page, though. These are my opinions. My point of view. The opinions are mine and I let you make up your own mind.

You know what they say? They say, 'The print media is dying' - who says that? Well, the media.

It is a remarkably easy thing to do, pointing out the faults of others and suggesting remedies or courses of action in an argumentative and pedantic sort of way, and I am still amazed that there are many people in the American media who are paid very big money to do this.

Artists often have mental health issues. And their lifestyles are unstable because of all the travelling and the media commentary on their lives.

Stephen Colbert is also then turned into news.

If you're crazy enough to put your hat into the ring of speculation and punditry, you're going to get some turbulence. But if it's coming from some journalist with a comfortable degree of body fat, I'm not losing any sleep over it.

I know the pundits and the news media have carried a lot of commentary about cameras in the courtroom, and there's a lot of controversy about it as a result of the Simpson case. But I have not had enough time to step back and enough time to evaluate that.

The general election of 1983 has produced one important result that has passed virtually without comment in the media. It is that, for the first time since 1945, a political party with an openly socialist policy has received the support of over eight and a half million people. This is a remarkable development by any standards and it deserves some analysis ... the 1983 Labour manifesto commanded the loyalty of millions of voters and a democratic socialist bridge-head in public understanding and support can be made.

I don't do commentaries; I can't listen to them, either.