One of our worst traits in journalism is that when we have a narrative in our minds, we often plug in anecdotes that confirm it. Thus we managed to portray President Gerald Ford, a first-rate athlete, as a klutz.
Nicholas KristofRead
The news media's silence, particularly television news, is reprehensible. If we knew as much about Darfur as we do about Michael Jackson, we might be able to stop these things from continuing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote criticizes the media for prioritizing celebrity news over important humanitarian crises.
Nicholas Kristof highlights the troubling tendency of media outlets to focus their coverage on sensational celebrity stories while neglecting significant global issues such as the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. He suggests that if the public were as informed about such crises as they are about pop culture events, there would be a greater collective effort to address and potentially resolve these pressing challenges.
Themes
MediaHumanitarianCrisisAwarenessDarfurCelebrity
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about media responsibility at a journalism conference.
More from Nicholas Kristof
All quotes →A basic element of the American dream is equal access to education as the lubricant of social and economic mobility.
Nicholas KristofRead
Worrying about bills, food, or other problems leaves less capacity to think ahead or to exert self-discipline. So, poverty imposes a mental tax.
Nicholas KristofRead
Most moms and dads, they want to be good moms and dads. But it's an incredibly hard job when you are stressed out, when you are poor, when your life is in chaos. And giving them some of the tools to be better parents, to whittle away at that parenting gap, gives those kids a much better starting point in life.
Nicholas KristofRead
Since the end of the 1970s, something has gone profoundly wrong in America. Inequality has soared. Educational progress slowed. Incarceration rates quintupled. Family breakdown accelerated. Median household income stagnated.
Nicholas KristofRead
Why are fanatics so terrified of girls' education? Because there's no force more powerful to transform a society. The greatest threat to extremism isn't drones firing missiles, but girls reading books.
Nicholas KristofRead
Similar quotes
When the human race neglects its weaker members, when the family neglects its weakest one - it's the first blow in a suicidal movement. I see the neglect in cities around the country, in poor white children in West Virginia and Virginia and Kentucky - in the big cities, too, for that matter.
Maya AngelouRead
India's sex ratio is 1000 boys for 940 girls. Who creates this disparity? It isn't God. Don't fill your coffers by sacrificing the mother's womb. People feel that sons will take care of them when they are old. But I have seen aged parents in old-age homes. I have seen families where one daughter serves parents more than five sons.
Narendra ModiRead
Race impacts 90 percent of our society - and I'm probably undershooting that figure. I find this fascinating and like to address it when pertinent.
Jemele HillRead
Too many of the conflicts which are caused today are caused by the problems that emerge from people who are in poverty.
James WolfensohnRead
There are so many bad influences out there. I don't care if a kid is rich or poor, if he lives in a million-dollar house or the ghetto, he is going to find some sick things on the street. And if we don't clean it up soon, we're all going to pay the price.
Warren MoonRead
I don't want to sound Pollyannish about this. I understand that poverty is never just poverty. It's often this collection of maladies, this compounded adversity. I'm not naive about the problem. But I think that stable, steady housing is one of the surest footholds we could have on the road to financial stability.
Matthew DesmondRead