79 Quotes by Carl Bernstein

"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."

"Increasingly, the picture of our society as rendered in our media is illusionary and delusionary: disfigured, unreal, out of touch with reality, disconnected from the true context of our life. It is disfigured by celebrity, by celebrity worship, by gossip, by sensationalism, by denial of our societies"

"What will a Hillary Clinton presidency look like? The answer by now seems obvious: It will look like her presidential campaign, which in turn looks increasingly like the first Clinton presidency. Which is to say, high-minded ideals, lowered execution, half truths, outright lies (and imaginary flights), take-no prisoners politics, some very good policy ideas, a presidential spouse given to wallowing in anger and self-pity, and a succession of aides and surrogates pushed under the bus when things don't go right. Which is to say, often."

"Good journalism should challenge people, not just mindlessly amuse them."

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

"Our news organizations and our reporters should be going after the best obtainable truth, not the sensational, on-the-surface truth ... But instead of going after the truth, we look through the lens of how much it will cost and of those who would like us not to tell the truth."

"We had very little time -- Bob and Felt in the garage together had very little time to have meetings and conversations in the course of a couple years. The object was to get as much information, as much context, as much certainty of things we had obtained elsewhere,"

"We had no idea of his motivations. And even now some of his motivations are unclear."

"Beyond this, I can only give you my personal assurance that our sole motivation in working on 'The Final Days' was to report the truth: neither money nor any preconceived disposition regarding Mr. Nixon was a factor in our reporting."

"During the past year, he'd pressed Woodward to tell him the name, arguing that the current editor should know the identity of our source. Woodward had resisted."