Whenever you're reporting, there's always something you can't say or write, but the questions, you always want to get as close to that line as possible. You want to ask the tough questions.
Interpretation
Effective reporting requires courage to ask difficult questions, knowing not all can be shared.
In this quote, Michael Hastings emphasizes the inherent challenges of reporting, where journalists often find themselves constrained by various factors that limit what can be disclosed. He advocates for the importance of probing deeper, posing tough questions that challenge the status quo, and striving to reach the boundaries of what can be truthfully reported, despite the risks involved.
In practice
You can use this quote during a journalism workshop to emphasize the need for courageous questioning.
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.
I have to admit that the empty prestige and the stupid glory - yes, the horrible rush, the deadly sense of importance that war brings to life - are hard illusions to shake off. Look at me, a war correspondent.
A woman I loved [Andi Parhamovich] was killed in Baghdad in January 2007 – al-Qaeda in Iraq took credit for it … The memorial service with me crying over an empty coffin.
The most important ethical issues and the most difficult ones are the human ones because a reporter has enormous power to hurt people.
Purchasing a story in order to bury it is a practice that many in the tabloid industry call 'catch and kill.'
Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It's absolutely unavoidable.
I have been asking if I'm an activist or a journalist. And my answer is very simple. I'm just a journalist who asks questions.
We all have our likes and our dislikes. But... when we're doing news - when we're doing the front-page news, not the back page, not the op-ed pages, but when we're doing the daily news, covering politics - it is our duty to be sure that we do not permit our prejudices to show. That is simply basic journalism.
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.
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