"The primary business of journalism is to make the powerful accountable."
The quote emphasizes that journalism's main purpose is to hold the powerful individuals or institutions in society responsible for their actions. By investigating, reporting, and disseminating information about these entities, journalists serve as a check on power and help maintain transparency and accountability in society. This ensures that the public is informed and can make decisions based on factual evidence rather than unsubstantiated claims or manipulations by those in authority.
"To be an effective journalist you have to believe in a free society."
This quote suggests that effective journalism is intrinsically linked to one's belief in a society that upholds freedom. In essence, it implies that the role of a journalist involves not only gathering and disseminating information but also fostering an environment where openness, transparency, and the free exchange of ideas are valued. This perspective underscores the critical role journalism plays in promoting democracy, as an informed society is key to making sound decisions and maintaining a healthy democratic process.
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
This quote emphasizes the importance of speaking out against injustice or oppressive systems, lest they become established as tyranny. In other words, when those who are morally upright choose not to act or speak against tyranny, it allows these oppressive forces to grow unchecked. Silence can enable tyranny, making it crucial for individuals with good conscience to actively resist and voice their opposition.
"It's easier to kill a human being than it is to convict one in court."
This quote by Glenn Greenwald emphasizes the inherent difficulty in ensuring justice within legal systems, often compared to the relatively straightforward act of taking a life. The statement suggests that due process and evidence-based decision-making are frequently challenging or compromised in courts, while the act of ending a human life, whether intentionally or not, is comparatively more straightforward. This quote underscores the value placed on the legal system's role in preserving justice and safeguarding individual rights, implying that we should strive for fairness to prevent the miscarriage of justice.
"The most important decisions affecting our lives are hidden from us."
This quote emphasizes the lack of transparency in decision-making processes that significantly impact our lives, often kept obscured from public view. It suggests a concern over power structures that make crucial decisions without accountability or oversight, potentially resulting in outcomes detrimental to the general population. The quote underscores the need for greater transparency and democratic control in governance to ensure fairness and justice for all citizens.
Many of the benefits from keeping terrorism fear levels high are obvious. Private corporations suck up massive amounts of Homeland Security cash as long as that fear persists, while government officials in the National Security and Surveillance State can claim unlimited powers and operate with unlimited secrecy and no accountability.
- Glenn Greenwald
There's a huge dichotomy between people who grow up with alienation, which, for me, was invaluable, and people who grow up so completely privileged that it breeds this complacency and lack of desire to question or challenge or do anything significant. Those are the types of people who become partners at the corporate law firms.
- Glenn Greenwald
There are different ways that kids who are gay take on the rejection and alienation they feel. The way I dealt with it was to say, 'You know what? You're imposing judgments on me and condemnations, but I don't accept them. I'm going to instead turn the light on you and see what your flaws are and impose the same judgmental standards on you.'
- Glenn Greenwald
The highest compliment one can give a writer is not to say that one wholeheartedly agrees with his observations, but that he provoked - really, forced - difficult thinking about consequential matters and internal questioning of one's own assumptions, often without quick or clear resolution.
- Glenn Greenwald
I personally think honestly disclosing rather than hiding one's subjective values makes for more honest and trustworthy journalism. But no journalism - from the most stylistically 'objective' to the most brazenly opinionated - has any real value unless it is grounded in facts, evidence, and verifiable data.
- Glenn Greenwald
Long before, and fully independent of, anything Congress did, President Obama made clear that he was going to preserve the indefinite detention system at Guantanamo even once he closed the camp. President Obama fully embraced indefinite detention - the defining injustice of Guantanamo - as his own policy.
- Glenn Greenwald
Embedded in 'The New York Times' institutional perspective and reporting methodologies are all sorts of quite debatable and subjective political and cultural assumptions about the world. And with some noble exceptions, 'The Times,' by design or otherwise, has long served the interests of the same set of elite and powerful factions.
- Glenn Greenwald
It is beyond dispute that President Obama and his aides have an extreme, even unprecedented obsession with concealing embarrassing information, controlling the flow of information, and punishing anyone who stands in the way. But, at least theoretically speaking, it is the job of journalists to impede that effort, not to serve and enable it.
- Glenn Greenwald
We know with certainty that the Obama administration has re-defined 'militants' to include any military-age males they kill regardless of whether they were actually doing anything wrong. We know with certainty that the U.S. Government has detained and publicly branded as 'terrorists' people they knew at the time were innocent.
- Glenn Greenwald
There's a perennial debate about whether the propagandistic tripe produced by establishment media outlets is shaped more by evil or by stupidity. Personally, I think it's both: a healthy dose of each is needed. The system design is malicious, while those who serve as its public face are generally vacant.
- Glenn Greenwald
The point of asylum is not to declare to the world what country you think is the pinnacle of civilization. The point of asylum is to find a country that's both willing and able to protect you from political persecution. In no way is asylum an endorsement of a country's politics, laws, or values.
- Glenn Greenwald
The most extremist power any political leader can assert is the power to target his own citizens for execution without any charges or due process, far from any battlefield. The Obama administration has not only asserted exactly that power in theory, but has exercised it in practice.
- Glenn Greenwald
I've always thought stability was suffocating and deadly. Like, when I read that the kids I went to law school with have stayed at the same firm, I feel like I'm reading an obituary. How much money do you need? Six million, seven million? Put that in the bank and do something else. Get out!
- Glenn Greenwald
If you're searching for quotes on a different topic, feel free to browse our Topics page or explore a diverse collection of quotes from various Authors to find inspiration.