We don't want anything from the government but that furtive little fellow called the truth - which, by the way, they'll never give you - which you have to go out and find by talking to people.
Morley SaferRead
Reality TV is sleazy, it is manipulative. It is as momentary as anything in popular culture.
Interpretation
Reality TV is superficial and designed to manipulate viewers' perceptions.
In this quote, Morley Safer critiques the nature of reality television, suggesting that it lacks substance and integrity. He emphasizes how it serves to manipulate audiences and is indicative of the fleeting nature of popular culture, reflecting a disdain for content that prioritizes sensationalism over authenticity.
In practice
During a panel discussion on media integrity, one might quote Safar to emphasize the need for authentic storytelling.
We don't want anything from the government but that furtive little fellow called the truth - which, by the way, they'll never give you - which you have to go out and find by talking to people.
Some people, you have to grit your teeth in order to stay in the same room as them, but you get on and ask the questions you assume most of the people watching want to ask.
So much crap passes as information that not only does the audience sometimes miss the distinction between news and crap, the editors sometimes miss the distinction.
As I go clowning my sentimental way into eternity, wrestling with all my problems of estrangement and communion, sincerity and simulation, ambition and acquiescence, I shuttle between worrying whether I matter at all and whether anything else matters but me.
Nothing forces us to know What we do not want to know Except pain
Getting well is not the only goal. Even more important is learning to live without fear, to be at peace with life and ultimately death.
Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea.
I can no more reread my own books than I can watch old home movies or look at snapshots of myself as a child. I wind up sitting on the floor, paralyzed by grief and nostalgia.
The proper role of government is exactly what John Stuart Mill said in the middle of the 19th century in "On Liberty." The proper role of government is to prevent other people from harming an individual. Government, he said, never has any right to interfere with an individual for that individual's own good.
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