Walter Cronkite Quotes

We're an ignorant nation right now. We're not really capable, I do not think, the majority of our people, of making the decisions that have to be made at election time and particularly in the selection of their legislatures and their Congress and the presidency, of course. I don't think we're bright enough to do the job that would preserve our democracy, our republic. I think we're in serious danger.

The profession of journalism ought to be about telling people what they need to know - not what they want to know.

The ethic of the journalist is to recognize one's prejudices, biases, and avoid getting them into print.

We are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders.

Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.

We've got a great percentage of our population that, to our great shame, either cannot or, equally unfortunate, will not read. And that portion of our public is growing. Those people are suckers for the demagogue.

If that is what makes us liberals, so be it, just as long as in reporting the news we adhere to the first ideals of good journalism - that news reports must be fair, accurate and unbiased.

We are on the precipice of being so ignorant that our democracy is threatened.

In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story.

As anchorman of the CBS Evening News, I signed off my nightly broadcasts for nearly two decades with a simple statement: "And that's the way it is." To me, that encapsulates the newsman's highest ideal: to report the facts as he sees them, without regard for the consequences or controversy that may ensue.

America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.

Success is more permanent when you achieve it without destroying your principles.

I am neither Republican nor Democrat. I am a registered independent because I find that I cast my votes not on the basis of party loyalty but on the issues of the moment and my assessment of the candidates.

I am dumbfounded that there hasn't been a crackdown with the libel and slander laws on some of these would-be writers and reporters on the Internet.

And that's the way it is.

There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free.

The ruling class is the rich. . . . And those people are so able to manipulate our democracy that they really control the democracy.

Our job is only to hold up the mirror - to tell and show the public what has happened.

Not only do we have a right to know, we have a duty to know what our Government is doing in our name. If there's a criticism to be made today, it's that the press isn't doing enough to put the pressure on the government to provide information.

It is not the reporter's job to be a patriot or to presume to determine where patriotism lies. His job is to relate the facts.

Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.

In all my years as a news commentator I was never once, able to tell the truth, about anything.

Not only do we have a right to know, we have a duty to know what our Government is doing in our name.

Those advocates who work for world peace by urging a system of world government are called impractical dreamers. Those impractical dreamers are entitled to ask their critics what is so practical about war.

It seems to me that instead of cutting taxes, we ought to be increasing the taxes to pay off the deficit, rather than let that thing build up to the point where our grandchildren's grandchildren are going to be paying for our period of time and our years at the helm.