QUOTATIONS

The media as fourth estate. “Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all.” —Thomas Carlyle

On the role of the newspaper. “Never be satisfied with merely printing news…. fight for progress and reform; never tolerate injustice or corruption; always fight demagogues of all parties…always oppose privileged classes and public plunderer; never lack sympathy with the poor; always remain devoted to the public welfare…”—Joseph Pulitzer

The skeptical view of the newspaper. “The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them.”—Thomas Jefferson

And of the public. “The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.”—Oscar Wilde

And of social media and internet news. “The biggest problem is that Facebook and Google are these giant feedback loops that give people what they want to hear. And when you use them in a world where your biases are being constantly confirmed, you become susceptible to fake news, propaganda, demagoguery.”—Franklin Foer