A long life in journalism convinced me many presidents ago that there should be a large air space between a journalist and the head of a state.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Journalism: an ability to meet the challenge of filling the space.
I thought journalism would enable me to be a mile wide and an inch deep.
And I've been incredibly lucky to have a long career in journalism that has given me a front-row seat to some of the most important moments in modern American political life.
Journalism talk is part of the nonstop background noise of American life.
I realise that, strutting around in power corridors for political coverage, a journalist becomes half a politician.
I think as journalists, we have to keep our distance from power.
Presidential coverage used to be a very serious endeavor.
Journalists are in the same madly rocking boat as diplomats and statesmen. Like them, when the Cold War ended, they looked for a new world order and found a new world disorder. If making and conducting foreign policy in today's turbulent environment is difficult, so is practicing journalism.
The fact is, most journalists I know are not particularly political. They move around a lot.
In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.