QuoteProject
Helping set the day's agenda and deciding what we used and editing it, that was a journalistic high point. I liked reporting as well. Just doing the news - the live performance - wasn't important. Working on the desk was.
Walter Cronkite
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes the importance of planning and editorial decisions in journalism over simply reporting events.

Walter Cronkite reflects on his experience in journalism, highlighting that the real achievement lies in shaping narratives and managing content rather than the act of reporting live news itself. He values the editorial work that influences how the day's news is presented to the audience, seeing it as a critical aspect of journalism that requires skill and insight.

Themes

JournalismReportingEditorialAgendaNews

In practice

Example use cases

In a lecture on media ethics, I quoted Cronkite to emphasize the responsibility of editors.

More from Walter Cronkite

Perhaps if all the peoples of the world understand what war really means, we would eliminate it.
Walter CronkiteRead
The death of Churchill at 90 was one of those watershed moments in which the obituary rises to a special calling beyond the sharing of remembered times. It gave an older generation a rare opportunity to explain something of itself to its children.
Walter CronkiteRead
I suppose popularity is measured by ratings. If a broadcaster is known as the leader because of ratings, then that's where people most want to be seen and heard, so there's no question that there's an advantage.
Walter CronkiteRead
Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine.
Walter CronkiteRead
I feel no compulsion to be a pundit. As a matter of fact, I really don't have that much to say about most things. Working with hard news satisfies me completely.
Walter CronkiteRead
I think that our comfort is in our history.
Walter CronkiteRead

Similar quotes

In campaign reporting more than any other kind of press coverage, reporters aren't just covering a story, they're a part of it - influencing outcomes, setting expectations, framing candidates - and despite what they tell themselves, it's impossible to both be a part of the action and report on it objectively.
Michael HastingsRead
If youre a reporter, the easiest thing in the world is to get a story. The hardest thing is to verify. The old sins were about getting something wrong, that was a cardinal sin. The new sin is to be boring.
David HalberstamRead
As a journalist, I know what it is like to incur the self-righteous wrath of people who denounce you for things you didn't say or didn't mean.
Anne ApplebaumRead
Purchasing a story in order to bury it is a practice that many in the tabloid industry call 'catch and kill.'
Ronan FarrowRead
People really in the meat grinder of the front lines are not, for the most part, insured or salaried network correspondents. They're young freelancers. They're kind of a cheap date for the news industry.
Sebastian JungerRead
The great concern is that year after year, rising numbers of journalists are being killed in pursuit of their work. They are increasingly seen as not being neutral but rather as combatants by one side or the other.
Salman RushdieRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.