“When we journalists fail to get across the reality of events to our readers, we have not only failed in our job; we have also become a party to the bloody events that we are supposed to be reporting. If we cannot tell the truth about the shooting down of a civilian airliner - because this will harm 'our' side in a war or because it will cast one of our 'hate' countries in the role of victim or because it might upset the owner of our newspaper - then we contribute to the very prejudices that provoke wars in the first place. If we cannot blow the whistle on a navy that shoots civilians out of the sky, then we make future killings of the same kind as 'understandable' as Mrs Thatcher found this one. Delete the Americans' panic and incompetence - all of which would be revealed in the months to come - and pretend an innocent pilot is a suicidal maniac, and it's only a matter of time before we blow another airliner out of the sky. Journalism can be lethal.”

—  Robert Fisk

Source: The Great War for Civilization (2005), Chapter 8: Drinking the Poisoned Chalice (page 333)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When we journalists fail to get across the reality of events to our readers, we have not only failed in our job; we hav…" by Robert Fisk?
Robert Fisk photo
Robert Fisk 25
English writer and journalist 1946

Related quotes

Jeff Flake photo
John Lancaster Spalding photo

“If we fail to interest, whether because we are dull and heavy, or because our hearers are so, we teach in vain.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 241

Thierry Baudet photo

“We have been called to the front. Because we have to, because our country needs us.”

Thierry Baudet (1983) Dutch writer and jurist

Baudet's speech: 5 remarkable statements and what they mean. https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/politiek/artikel/4650251/de-speech-van-baudet-forum-voor-democratie-5-opmerkelijke

Angela Merkel photo
Eric Trump photo

“Are we just supposed to throw away our relationship with Saudi Arabia because they murdered a journalist?”

Eric Trump (1984) American businessman and philanthropist

Fox News https://twitter.com/LisPower1/status/1053321750543564801, October 2018, on the suspected murder of Jamal Khashoggi

Jean Paul Sartre photo

“Our responsibility is much greater than we might have supposed, because it involves all mankind.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Existentialism and Human Emotions (1957)

Kim Jong-il photo

“Our country is suffering from the lack of food. We don't have rice for the military. Our country is in a state of anarchy because of the dysfunctional food rationing system. The administration department is responsible for this mess, as well as the Party officials. The Party's Central Committee members have failed their duty in generating a revolutionary spirit, diminishing the Party's effectiveness. We must solve the food problem according to socialist principles, and we must not rely on individuals. If we let the people solve the problem on their own, only merchants and markets will prosper. Then, selfishness will rule our society and destroy our system of true equality.”

Kim Jong-il (1941–2011) General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea

Reported speech at Kim Il Sung University in December 1996, as quoted in Exit Emperor Kim Jong-il (2012) by John H. Cha and K. J. Sohn. Domestic collections of Kim's works do not confirm the speech or the wording, but an April 1996 speech to the Central Committee began with similar observations, and a "state of anarchy" arising from privatization in former socialist countries was a theme in earlier works.
1990s

Charles Babbage photo
Jakaya Kikwete photo
Daniel Goleman photo

Related topics