Bill Kovach > Quotes

“One of the most useful pieces of advice we've learned in our journalism careers is summed up in the phrase "beware the fallacy of evil men.”
― Bill Kovach, Blur: How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload

“Reality is that which, when you don’t believe it, doesn’t go away.”
― Bill Kovach, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect

“celebrity. The number one topic on network evening newscasts for the decade was crime, even though crime rates nationally were plummeting during the period.”
― Bill Kovach, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect

“The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.”
― Bill Kovach, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect

“Those skills [to test the veracity of news produced], however, can be identified. If we look at those who have been in the business of empiricism - people in journalism, law, intelligence, science, medicine, and elsewhere - we will see a set of common concepts and skills that have developed over generations.”
― Bill Kovach, Blur: How to Know What's True in the Age of Information Overload

“In newspapers, as various studies have found, stories began to focus less on what candidates said and more on the tactical motives for their statements.”
― Bill Kovach, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect

“In the 1990s, as it began to feel the impact of cable news and syndicated infotainment programming, network evening newscasts became increasingly focused on tabloid crime and celebrity.”
― Bill Kovach, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect

“News must also be about solving the problems that confront individuals and the community. There are lines between news and advocacy, but helping solve problems is different from advocacy.”
― Bill Kovach, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect

“After Vietnam and Watergate, and later the advent of twenty-four-hour cable news, journalism became noticeably more subjective and judgmental.18 Coverage was focused more on mediating what public people were saying than simply reporting it.”
― Bill Kovach, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect