Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
The great thing about being a print journalist is that you are permitted to duck. Cameramen get killed while the writers are flat on the floor. A war correspondent for the BBC dedicated his memoir to 50 fallen colleagues, and I guarantee you they were all taking pictures. I am only alive because I am such a chicken.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the risks faced by journalists, especially in war zones, and the importance of self-preservation.
P. J. O'Rourke's quote reflects on the dangers that print journalists encounter in conflict situations, contrasting their ability to take cover with the more visible dangers faced by camera operators. O'Rourke humorously acknowledges his own survival instincts as a 'chicken,' suggesting that sometimes caution is key in dangerous professions, particularly in journalism where the stakes can be life and death.
Themes
JournalismCourageWarRiskSurvival
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of safety in journalism.
More from P. J. O'Rourke
All quotes →Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Predicting innovation is something of a self-canceling exercise: the most probable innovations are probably the least innovative.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
I spend my days kneeling in the muck of language, feeling around for gooey verbs, nouns, and modifiers that I can squash together to make a blob of a sentence that bears some likeness to reason and sense.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
The idea of a news broadcast once was to find someone with information and broadcast it. The idea now is to find someone with ignorance and spread it around.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Similar quotes
The decision to relax rather than to grip, even in the face of impatience or fear, is a conscious and brave choice.
B.K.S. IyengarRead
My friends were dropping like flies, and the government wasn't doing anything. You don't watch an entire generation take water hoses and dogs on the front line during the '60s or watch another generation perish from AIDS and then get to drive around in big cars and do nothing.
Jenifer LewisRead
Bring on your tear gas, bring on your grenades, your new supplies of Mace, your state troopers and even your national guards. But let the record show we ain't going to be turned around.
Ralph AbernathyRead
The Western media has depicted the Afghan woman as a helpless, weak individual. I have said it before, and I shall repeat it: The Afghan woman is strong. The Afghan woman is resourceful. The Afghan woman is resilient.
Rula GhaniRead
When I came back, after all those stories about Hitler and his snub, I came back to my native country, and I could not ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. Now what's the difference?
Jesse OwensRead
What hurts me most is poverty, and that's what led me to become a rebel.
Hugo ChavezRead