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"The first essence of journalism is to know what you want to know, the second, is to find out who will tell you."
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"Honestly, I expected to get a cold reception because of my subject matter. But when editors took a look at the story I had to tell, and saw that this was not a parochial story at all, they really warmed to it."

"Journalism largely consists in saying "Lord Jones is dead" to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive."

"A journalist's job is to collect information," Ovid said to Pete. "Nope," Pete said. "That's what we do. It's not what they do." Dellarobia was unready to be pushed out of the conversation just like that. "Then what do you think the news people drive their Jeeps all the way out here for?" "To shore up the prevailing view of their audience and sponsors." "Pete takes a dim view of his fellow humans," Ovid said. "He prefers insects. Dellarobia turned her chair halfway around to face Pete, scraping noisily against the cement floor. "You're saying people only tune in to news they know they're going to agree with?" "Bingo," said Pete."

"It's all quotes, anyway, and it all sounds the same to me."

"The First Amendment does not guarantee the press a constitutional right of special access to information not available to the general public, nor does it cloak the inmate with special rights of freedom of speech."

"Writers are the lunatic fringe of publishing."

"Deep Throat did serve the public interest by providing the guidance and information to us."

"If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera."

"As somebody who's been writing about this subject for getting on twenty years now, it's astonishing how the climate has changed in the last five years."

"If you have an anecdote from one source, you file it away. If you hear it again, it may be true. Then the more times you hear it the less likely it is to be true."
Explore more quotes by John Gunther

"The last copy of the Chicago Daily News I picked up had three crime stories on its front page. But by comparison to the gaudy days, this is small-time stuff. Chicago is as full of crooks as a saw with teeth, but the era when they ruled the city is gone forever."

"There are no generalizations in American politics that vested selfishness cannot cut through."

"What interested me was not news, but appraisal. What I sought was to grasp the flavor of a man, his texture, his impact, what he stood for, what he believed in, what made him what he was and what color he gave to the fabric of his time."

"The first essence of journalism is to know what you want to know, the second, is to find out who will tell you."
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