Scott Pelley > Quotes

“I believe no one is “self-made.” We are fashioned from the generosity of others.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“Relying on one point of view is dangerous, unethical and foolish.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“United We Stand” has never been the secret to America’s success. We are an amalgam of all the peoples of the world. “Divided We Stand” is our strength. With all our diversity, in all our languages and cultures, we should agree on one big idea—each of us belongs, each of us contributes and each of us must be heard. We are all woven into the tapestry of stars. That is a fight worth winning. And a truth worth telling.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“Enemy of the American people,” in President Trump’s phrase? We are the American people. Journalists bring vitality to the national conversation. We bridge differences, serve public safety, expose corruption, constrain power and give voice to the voiceless. As Madison might say today, Freedom of the Press is the right that guarantees all the others. The stakes are high. Become a journalist. We’d be proud to have you.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“We should be profoundly skeptical when one party claims certainty and blames the other for our problems. That’s a con. You know life isn’t like that. That’s why we invented democracies in the first place.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“Deceit is the fault that enables all vices.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“Even on a tight deadline, it is often possible to write, reflect and write again. Don’t stop rewriting until your deadline makes you stop.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“To write well, study writers. I would guide you to Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and to Coming into the Country by John McPhee. McPhee is among the best who craft nonfiction in literary style.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“there is no democracy without journalism.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“For example, imagine trying to get a sense of the voters before the 2016 election as we did in our story “Ask Ohio” for 60 Minutes. When you’re in the coffee shop interviewing out-of-work steelworkers, turn the coffee cup upside down. “Made in China,” ironic. In the greasy spoon restaurant in Lorain, Ohio, notice the shops on either side of the café are boarded up. Notice the Virgin Mary standing on the shelf above the Coco Puffs. Notice the sign that reads Pull Up Your Pants! With just these observations, the reader gets a pretty good idea of what kind of place this is, who works there and who eats there. John Steinbeck called this “layering detail upon detail.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“Reporting and writing are first and foremost about “seeing.” You can’t write about what you did not see and most of us are terrible at “seeing.” Here are a couple of exercises to practice. In your home, find twenty things you’ve never seen before. I promise you there are two thousand. Also, a few times a day, stop and ask yourself, “If I had to write about this place, or this person, or this moment, what are the unnoticed details that would bring my story to life?”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“read the poets. Hear their song. Feel the cadence. See how words convey meaning beyond their definitions. May I suggest Whitman, Sandburg and Yeats? That’s a start.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“When people wrap their point of view in the flag, notice the number of stars in which they have clothed themselves. There are fifty. There are no versions of the Stars and Stripes that eliminate conservative states or liberal ones. There are fifty stars. The blue field on which those stars shine isn’t called “the Union” for nothing. If you honor the flag, if you like to stand during the national anthem, you are adopting all the stars. Our flag is the very image of compromise. If you chose America, you chose all of America, “Indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all.” No democracy has survived any other way. It is easier to listen to the drone of confirming information, to reject, out of hand, ideas that question what we believe. But democracy is not for the lazy.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“author and journalism professor John McPhee tells his students at Princeton, “A thousand details make one impression.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“The dead will be waiting because a crime buried without justice is never laid to rest.”
― Scott Pelley

“In the minutia, you will find richness, texture and truth.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“Impeachment is a political act, not a legal one. It is the job of the House of Representatives to decide whether a president should be “impeached,” which is the equivalent of an indictment. If so, then the Senate puts the president on trial to determine whether he should be removed from office.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“attempt to decipher the country that Winston Churchill described as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma...”2”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“Until we take responsibility, instead of taking sides, I believe we risk a new Cold War—this time, a civil war.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“Reflection is the greatest gift writers can give themselves. Write your first draft then put it away—for an hour, a day or overnight. I guarantee when you come back to it, you will see problems you didn’t expect and opportunities you hadn’t imagined.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“The word democracy is a mashup of the Greek demos and kratia, meaning “the people rule.” Citizens cannot rule what they cannot see. When reporting is barred from the battlefield, the people no longer rule.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“If you think you are writing well, you’re not trying hard enough. If you think you are writing badly, you have probably found the right path. Never give up. Journalism shares at least one attribute of poetry. Both the journalist and the poet are working to convey maximum meaning with minimum words.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“For anyone who is persuaded by President Trump’s “fake news” campaign, have a look at China. The news becomes “fake” not when there is competitive reporting, but when the government decides what is true and what is not.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“Without legislation from Congress, President Obama signed several orders to restrict gun sales to ineligible buyers. One of his presidential memorandums built on a law signed by President George W. Bush in 2008. That law required federal agencies to report ineligible persons to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.8 After Sandy Hook, President Obama ordered the Justice Department to make sure all agencies were following the Republican-passed law.9 In response, the Social Security Administration adopted a rule to report to the background check system certain people who were receiving disability benefits because of mental disorders. That covered an estimated seventy-five thousand mental patients. But in February 2017, the House and Senate passed bills to reverse the Social Security Administration’s rule.10 President Trump signed into law the restoration of firearm eligibility to those who are so mentally ill that they are considered by the government to be disabled.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“If something’s important enough you should try. Even if the probable outcome is failure,”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“After Sandy Hook, President Obama ordered the Justice Department to make sure all agencies were following the Republican-passed law.9 In response, the Social Security Administration adopted a rule to report to the background check system certain people who were receiving disability benefits because of mental disorders. That covered an estimated seventy-five thousand mental patients. But in February 2017, the House and Senate passed bills to reverse the Social Security Administration’s rule.10 President Trump signed into law the restoration of firearm eligibility to those who are so mentally ill that they are considered by the government to be disabled.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“His diction was lightly shaded by Georgia palmetto.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“I’m often amused when an American politician rails against “The Media” as though American reporters and editors get together each morning to decide on a single message. In America, “The Media” is a cacophony of thousands of broadcasts, websites and publications, large and small, in a competitive frenzy to clobber each other with better coverage.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, defended his social media site by saying, “Determining the truth is complicated.” Well, yes. Yes, it is. Determining the truth is so complicated that people go to universities to learn how to do it. Some get master’s degrees in the subject or PhDs. These are called journalism degrees and the people who care deeply about seeking truth for democracy are called journalists.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times

“If journalism is the song in your heart and others can’t hear it, they are wrong, not you. You keep going, keep growing. Never give in. Sing the song in your heart. Your country needs you.”
― Scott Pelley, Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter's Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times