Given what the media have put the country through this past decade, it must come as a surprise to most Americans that the press has a code of ethics. – Roger Mudd
Journalists, who are skeptical to begin with, simply do not like to be lied to or made fools of. – Roger Mudd
No matter what name we give it or how we judge it, a candidate’s character is central to political reporting because it is central to a citizen’s decision in voting. – Roger Mudd
The ethics of editorial judgement, however, began to go though a sea change during the late 1970s and ’80s when the Carter and Reagan Administrations de-regulated the television industry. – Roger Mudd
In exchange for power, influence, command and a place in history, a president gives up the bulk of his privacy. – Roger Mudd
And what it depends on, of course, is whether the story itself is worth the ethical compromise it requires and whether the competition is onto the story. – Roger Mudd
As electronic journalism came to be evaluated for its cost effectiveness, the network world began breaking up. – Roger Mudd
The relationship between press and politician – protected by the Constitution and designed to be happily adversarial – becomes sour, raw and confrontational. – Roger Mudd
The written tone and the spoken tone change and the reporters’ disbelief in the veracity of the government spreads to the readers and the viewers. – Roger Mudd
For decades, the journalistic norm had been that the private lives of public officials remained private unless that life impinged on public performance. – Roger Mudd
Most journalists now believe that a person’s privacy zone gets smaller and smaller as the person becomes more and more powerful. – Roger Mudd
The networks found themselves having to compete for an increasingly Balkanized audience. – Roger Mudd
