Skip to content

The reality is that the media are probably the most powerful of all our institutions today and they, or rather we [journalists], too often are squandering our power and ignoring our obligations. The consequence of our abdication of responsibility is the ugly spectacle of idiot culture!

— Carl Bernstein

Another quote →

More quotes by Carl Bernstein

You can't serve the public good without the truth as a bottom line.

The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.

An A-Z of cultural terms, The Guardian (1992)

The failures of the press have contributed immensely to the emergence of a talk-show nation, in which public discourse is reduced to ranting and raving and posturing. We now have a mainstream press whose news agenda is increasingly influenced by this netherworld.

An A-Z of cultural terms, The Guardian (1992)

All Carl Bernstein quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Carl Bernstein (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.