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Campaigns, Investigations, and Bribes


Crusading journalism

It is a newspaper's duty to print the news and raise hell.
William Storey
Statement of the aims of the 'Chicago Times'
1861

A newspaper can send more souls to heaven , and save more from Hell, than all the churches or chapels in New York.
James Gordon Bennett

Hot lead can be almost as effective coming from a linotype as from a
firearm.
John O'Hara

If newspapers are useful in overthrowing tyrants, it is only to establish a tyranny of their own.
James Fenimore Cooper


Investigative journalism

An investigative journalist is one who can think up plausible scandals.
Lambert Jeffries

The image of the reporter as a nicotine-stained Quixote, slugging back Scotch while skewering City Hall with an exposé ripped out of the typewriter on the crack of deadline persists despite munificent evidence to the contrary.
Paul Grey

A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press, must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the right of the people to know.
Murray I Gurfein
US Appeal Court judge, affirming the right
of the 'New York Times' to publish
the Pentagon Papers
1971


Bribery and corruption

A gifted man who isn't interested in money is very hard to tame.
Alistair Cooke
of the BBC

The only newspapers that can be bought are the ones not worth buying.
Lord Liverpool
(1770-1828)
British Prime Minister

I receive, once every two months, blatant proposals to write reviews for new films or articles about computer companies or about politicians for considerable money. In 1993, when Moscow News was paying about 2,000 rubles [about $6] per typed page, I was offered as much as $100 to write a positive review of a new firm for that paper.
Oleg Pschenichny
Moscow journalist
1995

Never accept a free ticket from a theatre manager, a free ride from the chamber of commerce, or a favour from a politician.
H.L. Menken

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