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All publicity is good, except an obituary notice.

Well-reported news is a public good; bad news is bad for everyone.

This country is being managed to death, being public related to death.

For political and bureaucratic reasons, governments at all levels are telling far less to the public than to insiders about how to prepare for and behave in the initial chaos of a mass-casualty event.

Some newspapers have a hands-off policy on favored politicians. But it's generally very small newspapers or local TV stations.

I have always argued that newspapers should not have any civic purpose beyond telling readers what is happening... A reporter who doesn't quickly tell readers what they most want to know - the score - won't last long. Better he should teach political science.

We have a media that presents every politician as being as bad as the next. There is no distinguishing between one good idea or another; no explanation of why constitutional change should be uppermost in the minds of the people I represent.

Today, many people take for granted the notion that people whose lives are going to be very heavily affected by public policies should have a say in how they are formulated and carried out.

Writing headlines is a specialty - there are outstanding writers who will tell you they couldn't write a headline to save their lives.