Andrew Rosenthal Quotes

For nearly three years, President Obama devoted a great deal of effort to finding compromises with Congressional Republicans. That was futile, in my view, since those Republicans had made it clear from the day he was inaugurated in 2009 that their plan was to oppose everything he wanted and then paint him as a failed president.

- Andrew Rosenthal

It's getting hard to keep up with all of the news from Washington - witch hunts, conspiracy theories and Republicans tearing each other apart over who is ideologically pure and who is apostate. It's a real set of carnival sideshows.

- Andrew Rosenthal

The right of free speech cannot be parceled out based on whether we want to hear what the speaker has to say or whether we agree with those views. It means, quite often, tolerating the expression of views that we find distasteful, perhaps even repugnant.

- Andrew Rosenthal

Charles Blow's memoir 'Fire Shut Up in My Bones' was a breathtaking piece of writing.

- Andrew Rosenthal

The American system of civilian control of the military recognizes that soldiers' attention must be fixed on winning battles and staying alive, and that the fog of war can sometimes obscure the rule of law.

- Andrew Rosenthal

When I heard the news that Steve Jobs had died, my mind flashed back to 1985, when I began my love affair with computers. I was stationed in Moscow for The Associated Press, and I ordered an Apple IIc - by Telex - from a department store in Helsinki, Finland. They express-shipped it to me, a month later, by train.

- Andrew Rosenthal

Even the king of phrasing, Frank Sinatra, did not do as well as Joe Cocker with his reinterpretation of 'Something' by George Harrison, which Sinatra called the greatest love song ever written.

- Andrew Rosenthal

If a columnist writes that something happened on a certain date, or that the government spent a certain amount of money on something, or that a specific number of people have died in the war in Iraq, to pick a few examples, it is his or her responsibility to make certain that information is correct.

- Andrew Rosenthal

I can still remember the first time I heard a Beatles song. It was the fall of 1964, my second year in an American school after my family moved back from overseas, and I was standing on the corner of 64th street and First Avenue with my friend Larry Campbell.

- Andrew Rosenthal

The big thing in favor of doing an editorial on the front page is that it would be a powerful signal of how concerned we are about guns.

- Andrew Rosenthal

The IIc was Apple's first crack at a 'portable' computer, which it sort of was if you didn't mind a 7.5 pound weight, plus monitor, external floppy drive, and all the cables.

- Andrew Rosenthal

The editorial page is where you'll find our opinions, while the letters columns and the space for Op-Ed contributors are a forum for debate and discussion.

- Andrew Rosenthal

I read 'The Hobbit' but not a single one of the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. I had to lie about this pretty much all through high school. I still say it apologetically.

- Andrew Rosenthal

New Yorkers were grateful when Donald J. Trump finished ahead of schedule and under budget in renovating the Wollman Memorial Rink, where the city had spent six years and $12 million trying to produce ice.

- Andrew Rosenthal

Music was transmitted over the airwaves in the '60s - for free, even - astonishingly enough without Bit Torrent.

- Andrew Rosenthal

Ultimately, presidential campaigns are - or at least should be - about the candidates, not their spouses or surrogates.

- Andrew Rosenthal

There are so many reasons to mark the passing of the great Joe Cocker - as many songs as he wrote, recorded and performed in his remarkable concerts. For me, Cocker was also the only performer who successfully covered and even improved on The Beatles.

- Andrew Rosenthal

Congress passed the deeply flawed Patriot Act and authorized the invasion of Iraq. It even gave its retroactive approval to warrantless wiretapping.

- Andrew Rosenthal

Editorials are, obviously, pieces of opinion journalism. They are not intended to be dispassionate, balanced accountings of a news situation or issue. They present a strong and strongly argued position and do not necessarily present or even take into account the opposing position.

- Andrew Rosenthal

I long ago lost track of the number of times the Obama administration has assured everyone that its vacuum-cleaner approach to electronic surveillance does not threaten the privacy or the rights of Americans.

- Andrew Rosenthal

Some grocery stores began using electronic scanners as early as 1976, and the devices have been in general use in American supermarkets for a decade.

- Andrew Rosenthal

The 24/7 nature of online debate, on the web and across social media, has allowed for more vibrant discussion of the opinions we publish - and your own.

- Andrew Rosenthal

Bill Clinton, who packs his own star power, has been a big draw as well as a big drag on his wife's campaign.

- Andrew Rosenthal

My father was not prone to worship, but he worshiped Arthur Sulzberger.

- Andrew Rosenthal

I read on my iPad. But honestly, I prefer print.

- Andrew Rosenthal

An Op-Ed by a Republican criticizing the Democrats, or vice versa, is easy to come by and not that interesting. But a Democrat who takes issue with his or her party, or a Republican who does that, is more valuable.

- Andrew Rosenthal

The United States lost the nuclear-powered submarine Thresher 100 miles east of Cape Cod in 1963, and the submarine Scorpion sank in 1968 in more than 10,000 feet of water 400 miles southwest of the Azores.

- Andrew Rosenthal

If something is presented as a fact, it has to be correct.

- Andrew Rosenthal

Columnists must make sure that when they describe an event, they are being accurate in their description. When they quote someone, they are required to do so accurately. Errors that are made must be corrected openly and quickly.

- Andrew Rosenthal

Free speech is one of the founding principles of our republic.

- Andrew Rosenthal

The fact of the matter is, particularly when covering a campaign, which is a very high-speed story, it's incredibly unusual for the reporter to be in the same place as the dateline when the story is filed.

- Andrew Rosenthal

The columnists have a very personal relationship with their readers, and the readers deserve to hear directly from the columnists.

- Andrew Rosenthal

'NYT Opinion' offers our readers what we think are the most stimulating and interesting points of view you can find anywhere.

- Andrew Rosenthal

Datelines are kind of an anachronism. It's a little bit of an affectation.

- Andrew Rosenthal

It's interesting how powerful, in fact, the printed page still is.

- Andrew Rosenthal

I have sometimes thought the power of computers had exceeded our ability to use them, but Mr. Jobs and his team kept giving us devices that made indispensable things easier in ways you never thought of.

- Andrew Rosenthal

When I was young, I colored in the line drawings in vintage editions of the Oz books that had been handed down through generations in my family. This was a bad thing to do.

- Andrew Rosenthal

All of our columnists have areas of interest and expertise that they will return to frequently, but the subject matter of any given column is up to them.

- Andrew Rosenthal

In many campaigns, one candidate or another is asked to answer for comments he or she made in the past. The answer is usually gibberish - 'That was a long time ago,' or 'I was trying to say something else.'

- Andrew Rosenthal

One of the hard truths about the new digital world is that we have to be prepared to acknowledge when an experiment is not going to work, and to take action.

- Andrew Rosenthal

The Apple IIc, with its 128KB of RAM, 125KB floppy drive, word processor, and spreadsheet application, did everything I could imagine a computer doing at the time.

- Andrew Rosenthal

My father, A. M. Rosenthal, edited the 'Times' for nearly 20 years and worked at the paper for many more.

- Andrew Rosenthal

Opinion pages have an impact on public debate, and they sometimes reveal things the government would rather have kept quiet.

- Andrew Rosenthal

I like to say that a 'Times' editorial presents a strong opinion based on reality.

- Andrew Rosenthal

Joe Cocker never sounded forced. Crazy, perhaps, but not forced.

- Andrew Rosenthal