Tv Journalism Quotes

It's very nearly impossible to tell the truth in television.

I think that Peter Jennings is the only decent one of the big three.

Getting involved in a newsroom and seeing how it operated and the urgency of live television really got my attention.

Covering Richard Nixon's triumphant run in 1968 turned out to be my last major assignment as a general correspondent for CBS News. In September of that year, '60 Minutes' made its debut and I began the best, the most fulfilling job a reporter could imagine.

There's not a better job in journalism than the one we have, seriously on '60 Minutes' - not a better job.

I was in sixth grade. I loved TV news. I acknowledge that I was also in awe of Barbara Walters interviewing Patrick Swayze and dancing with him.

Wolf Blitzer is an excellent reporter, but he's not a star.

The idea for 'Lifestyles' began to take shape in my mind as I became more and more frustrated with the type of celebrity interviews I was doing for television.

Television reporters aren't really called reporters. They are called researchers. And that's really all they are.

I'm a member of the media. I'm America's Anchorman.

As a print journalist, you can be frustrated by people who don't call you back, parts of the story you can't get. TV gets you access to everyone because people call you back. It also allows you to satisfy your curiosity. I am a very curious person.

Mom would talk about Eric Sevareid and Murrow and Howard K. Smith the way other parents talk about sports figures.

I'm very committed to and interested in CNN's journalism and our magazines and our movie studio, not just HBO, where I grew up. But I do have a fondness for subscription television.

For decades, Barbara Walters has been described as a broadcast pioneer - and with good reason. In 1974, Walters became the first female host of the 'Today' show. In 1976, she became the first woman to serve as a network-news anchor. In 1984, she moderated the first presidential debate between Walter Mondale and Ronald Reagan.

Mike Wallace's interviews may make great television, but they don't produce great evidence.

I got a lot of love for NBC, Tom Brokaw. He did a lot for me, and I appreciate him, and I owe a lot to him for that.

Anchormen shouldn't cry.

Before I ever heard about '60 Minutes,' I had been a writer, a columnist for 'Life' magazine and for 'Newsweek' - that was about as high as you could get in column writing. I care about my writing. I'm not a quack-quack TV journalist.

Print and television journalism are very different, and it's not like one is better than the other.

TV journalism is a much more collaborative, horizontal business than print reporting. It has to be, because of the logistics. Anchors are wholly dependent on producers to do all the hustling.

I was working for a Swedish TV show - I'm Swedish - who basically did kind of spectacular stories. It was almost like CBS '60 Minutes,' but a Swedish version where we actually did travel quite a lot. After a while, I realized that travel is the most fun part of this, so why not do it for a longer time and just go off and explore?

The host of 'Face The Nation,' Bob Schieffer, was an important figure in my childhood years. Every Sunday in the fall, he occupied my family's time after church and before the NFL pregame shows.

There was a point where if you had told me I was going to be a national morning anchor, I would probably have been terrified. But now, I feel prepared. I've been in the business for almost 20 years now. I'm almost forty years old and I've been doing this for a long time, so I felt like, "Okay, I'm ready to do this."

That crossover of whether it's entertainment or news is the biggest crock of b.s. in television today, because it's all entertainment.

You have to be careful not to go overboard. How do you balance what is clearly great television with good journalism?