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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.

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

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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 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!

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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.